UNC won't review all salaries

The UNC system is talking to campuses about its pay raise policy but will not order a statewide analysis in the wake of N.C. State's recent 88 percent pay increase for first lady Mary Easley.

"There are no plans for a widespread review," said Joni Worthington, a spokeswoman for the UNC system. "There doesn't appear to be any indication that it is required. There will be a clarification to all the campuses about what the policy requires."

All UNC campuses will have to verify that they've adhered to the policy, Worthington added.

A UNC-Chapel Hill spokesman said Friday that officials there think they've followed the policy properly.

NCSU acknowledged this week that it has, since 2002, been misinterpreting a university system policy requiring raises of more than 15 percent and $10,000 to be approved by the UNC system's governing board. Easley, for whom an $80,000 executive-in-residence position was created three years ago, recently received an increase to $170,000, a broad expansion of her work duties, and a new, five-year contract.

NCSU officials say they didn't think until recently that the university system policy applied to Easley's situation because it does not cover new job hires, which is what they considered her new appointment. Her job changed, and she received a fixed five-year work term, but some of her duties and her title remained unchanged.

Now, NCSU will review more than 800 fixed-term contracts for workers ranging from single-course lecturers to top administrators. It must conduct the review before the next UNC Board of Governors meeting in September.

In his first public comment on the issue, NCSU Chancellor James Oblinger said Thursday in a statement posted on the university's Web site that he is convening a task force to examine how his campus issues fixed-term contracts.

"We believed we were using the right approach in the way we were handling fixed-term contracts," Oblinger said in the statement. "As an institution that prides itself on doing the right things in the right way, we are embarrassed by this difference of interpretation and will take immediate steps to ensure that our contract approval processes are consistent with [UNC system] guidelines."

Easley was a prosecutor for 10 years and in private law practice for eight. She also taught law at N.C. Central University. Since being hired at NCSU, she has taught three classes a year and directed a speaker series whose participants have included Donna Shalala, a former U.S. secretary of health and human services, and U.S. Sen. Lindsey Graham, a South Carolina Republican. Her new duties include teaching two classes, coordinating law education initiatives and creating a public safety leadership center.