‘Ray for Fair Pay! CPI +5% for all Employees!
We love Bucknell!
So much in fact that we want to make it the best Bucknell it can be!
Join 500 of your coworkers and sign the petition! Help us help the administration and board do right by all Bucknell employees!
The Problem
Over the past 5 years, Bucknell faculty and staff have seen their real wages decline by almost 8% because raises were below the rate of inflation.
The standard measure for inflation is CPI-U, or Consumer price Index for all Urban Consumers, which measures U.S. consumer prices based on a representative basket of goods and services. While the data below pertains to faculty salaries, University policy is that the faculty and staff salary pool increases are the same.
Faculty Salaries Compared to Inflation
| Year | 2019 | 2020 | 2021 | 2022 | 2023 | 2024 |
| Inflation (CPI-U) (12 months to June of Year) | 1.65% | 0.65% | 5.39% | 9.06% | 2.97% | 2.97% |
| Faculty Pool Increase | 2.50% | 0.00% | 1.75% | 3.50% | 5.25% | N/A |
| Faculty Across-the-Board Increase* | 2.00% | 0.00% | 1.25% | 3.00% | 4.75% | 3.90% |
| Real Wage Increase (one-year, across-the-board) | 0.35% | -0.65% | -4.14% | -6.06% | 1.78% | 0.93% |
Endowment Growth
Over the same period, the University’s endowment has grown by an average of 9% per year from a total market value of $ 800 million to $1.1 billion.
Source: Bucknell Endowment Report Fall 2023 (Audited).
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Source: Bucknell Endowment Report Spring 2024 (Unaudited)
The Excuses
They’ll cite the longterm interests of the institution—our “sacred duty” to ensure that Bucknell continues another 150 years. So even as the endowment has reached record highs, the board of trustees has cut endowment draw from 5.5% to 4.5%. But what about the longterm interests of families and communities that rely on a decent wage to make ends meet? Instead of investing in the stock market, why doesn’t the board of trustees invest in us?
They’ll cite the lower cost of living in Central Pennsylvania. They’ll tell us to look at our peer institutions (seemingly always shifting to get the “right” numbers) who have also managed to hold down faculty and staff salaries. They might even cite the $5,000 bonus those of us who worked through the pandemic received for hundreds of hours of overtime.
They’ll cite the total compensation review currently underway, thanks to the prodding of AAUP Bucknell. While we welcome this necessary work, ask yourself: In any of the implementation measures offered by HR, did you see fair compensation for wage erosion? Did you see a permanent linking of raises to inflation to protect us from real wage cuts in the future?
Perhaps most cynically of all, they will pit students against the working people who deliver on Bucknell’s educational mission, pinning tuition increases to salary raises or correlating the increasing discount rate to wages cut. But since Bucknell began increasing its discount rate, the number of VPs and AVPs has grown and the university has been on a building spree—Holmes Hall, Academic East, the Pascucci Team Center, the five residential halls of Bucknell West.
The point is that when they invoke financial uncertainty and belt-tightening, its seems that there is always money for some things and some people but not for the everyday faculty and staff who dedicate their lives to making this university run—from the custodian to the tenured faculty member, from the admissions liaison to the assistant coach. In short, as the university’s wealth has been growing, the administration has been shirking workers in the long run with impacts on our families and communities across the region.
The Solution
Since the university has shown itself unwilling to compensate workers fairly, each of us has two options for increasing our pay:
- uproot your life and your family and find another better paying job somewhere else or . . .
- join with other workers to exercise your legally protected rights to advocate for fair compensation.
AAUP Bucknell is the only organization on campus advocating for higher wages for all workers.
When we ask for CPI+5% for all employees we are just asking for fair compensation to begin repairing the harm done by choices made against the interests of workers. We’re asking the administration to do right by us and help us make a better Bucknell.
What can you do?
- Sign up for AAUP Bucknell (no dues) to join our listserv.
- Sign the petition asking Bucknell administration to raise our wages CPI+5%. AAUP Bucknell will deliver our petition to the administration once we have 50% of faculty and staff support (approx. 620 signatures).
- Talk to your co-workers about your wages and compensation, about AAUP Bucknell, and the ‘Ray for Fair Pay campaign.
- Add the ‘Ray for Fair Pay badge to your email signature to demonstrate your solidarity with your co-workers. (right-click to download below)
Why I Signed
Over 500 of our coworkers have signed the petition! These are a few of their reasons.
The work that our custodial staff carries out on a daily basis is physically taxing and requires a lot of strength and endurance, even for an atypically young worker like myself. Not only is the work unimaginably draining for these parents and grandparents devoting 40 hours of their time each week, but everyone here regularly devotes additional time to the campus’s needs, and I even have co-workers in their 50s taking on additional part time jobs to make ends meet. I signed this petition not because a chance at extra wages will uplift Bucknell’s lower end staff to new heights in life, but-at the bare minimum- these people who devote their life to the health and safety of the University deserve whatever it can give them to make life just a little easier.
My name is Jason Garner, and I’m a Bucknell employee.
I joined the ‘Ray for Fair Pay Campaign because if Bucknell is going to survive–let alone thrive–in the coming years during which we anticipate an increasingly destabilizing political climate, a demographic cliff eroding enrollments, and an intensification of antagonism toward higher education, it will be because of its employees. Bucknell employees, across all divisions, are deeply invested in the health and well-being of the institution. But if Bucknell employees do not receive wages that match their expected and actual labor, there will be attrition–and the institution will suffer.
My name is Erica Gene Delsandro and I am a Bucknell employee
I signed the CPI+5% petition because fair wages are essential to maintaining a strong and motivated staff. The rising cost of living impacts everyone, and it’s important that salaries keep pace so employees can focus on their work without financial stress.
My name is Winnie Foreman, and I’m a Bucknell employee.
I signed the CPI+5% petition to pressure decision makers to reprioritize university resources for the benefit of the people who keep the university afloat and true to its mission of providing a quality liberal arts education.
My name is Paul Barba, and I’m a Bucknell employee