Data captured by the Department of Education shows the growth of the WCC Administration, even as the overall size of the institution’s staff shrank. WCC’s 2011-12 data show that it employed 568 full-time and 1,074 part-time employees. This is the snapshot of WCC’s staff at the time of Rose Bellanca’s arrival on campus. Those figures included 166 full-time and 600 part-time faculty members; 118 full-time and 163 part-time clerical/secretarial employees; and 74 full-time service/maintenance employees. The 2011-12 data also indicated that there were 160 full-time executive/administrative/managerial employees on the payroll.
The WCC administration in 2012
In 2012, the Department of Education changed the way it collected employee data, making the reporting more granular. In 2012, WCC reported a total of 564 full-time and 1,064 part-time employees on the payroll. The instructional staff included 162 full-time and 577 part-time instructors. WCC reported 94 full-time and 6 part-time employees in Management Occupations, as well as 19 full-time and 9 part-time employees in Business and Financial Operations. In 2012-13, WCC reported 106 full-time and 149 part-time clerical/secretarial employees; 55 full-time and 42 part-time service employees, and also 28 full-time and 1 part-time maintenance employees.
In that year, WCC reported salary outlays of $7,682,197 for the 94 full-time employees in managerial occupations. The average salary of this cohort was $81,725 per person. Based on the same data, the average Business and Financial Operations salary was $50,500, while the average clerical salary was $35,770. The average full-time service salary was $36,675, and the average full-time faculty salary was $84,120. WCC also reported an average salary of $51,442 for full-time maintenance workers.
The WCC administration in 2018
By 2018, the overall WCC staff size had shrunk to 566 full-time and 904 part-time employees. That included 164 full-time and 533 part-time instructional staff members; 115 full-time and 5 part-time managerial employees. Additionally, the institution employed 27 full-time and 5 part-time employees. WCC reported the size of the clerical staff to be 92 full-time and 121 part-time employees. Its service staff included 52 full-time and 37 part-time employees, as well as 25 full-time maintenance personnel.
WCC reported a salary outlay of $9,938,972 for its 115 full-time managerial employees – an average of $86,425 per person. The average salary for Business and Finance Operations employees was $55,165. Its average full-time clerical staff salary was $38,895 and its service salary outlay was $43,322 per full-time worker. WCC’s maintenance staff members earned an average of $61,400, and the full-time instructional staff earned an average of $93,828 per year.
While the average salaries for the instructional, clerical and custodial/maintenance staffs all increased between 2012 and 2018, the College paid for those salary increases by decreasing the overall number of employees in these groups. The average salaries for managerial and business/financial operations employees also increased, but so did the number of persons working in each group.
In other words, when costs for the unionized employees on campus rose, the College responded by reducing the number of employees in those groups, mostly through attrition. When cost for the non-unionized managerial and business staffs rose, the Administration continued to hire. Between 2012 and 2018, WCC reported that its managerial salary costs rose by more than 29%. Its Business and Financial salaries cost increased by more than 55%.
No one is asking questions
This information is readily available to the Board of Trustees. Every month, the Trustees must authorize the hiring of every new employee. Other community colleges do that to call attention to staff growth at their institutions. Each hire is discussed and approved individually. The Trustees understand who is being hired, for what reason, and how much the hire is going to cost the College.
WCC Trustees don’t do that. The Administration buries administrative hiring by lumping all personnel changes into a single motion, and the Trustees simply approve it, no questions asked. It is a mindless step, which highlights the critical lack of oversight by the WCC Trustees.
It is time to separate the hiring information for non-union employees from the rest of the Personnel Report. Every new hire should be discussed individually, and the Administration should be required to justify the addition of any new staff member.
The Washtenaw County taxpayers deserve better oversight of the $60M or so per year that we funnel to WCC. We need Trustees who ask questions and exercise independent judgment regarding the expenditure of our money.
WCCWatch: Martin Thomas | WCCWatch: David DeVarti | WCCWatch: Christina Fleming | WCCWatch: Ruth Hatcher
Photo Credit: Andrew Steele, via Flickr
