As part of an ongoing series about salaries at public institutions, the Tyler Morning Telegraph took a look at the salaries at Tyler Junior College.
Tyler Junior College is primarily a two-year school, but is one of about a half-dozen community colleges in Texas that can offer some bachelor’s degrees. A locally elected board of trustees is the governing body.
The college enrolled about 11,500 students last year in about 125 career-oriented degree and certificate programs. The college had an annual budget of just under $91 million in fiscal year 2018.
The college provided the salaries following a request under the Texas Public Information Act. The salaries are actuals as of June 30, which fell near the end of the school’s fiscal year 2018.
The numbers include 718 employees, full-time and part-time, from the chancellor to temporary staff. The numbers include each employee’s base salary for fiscal year 2018, plus any stipends the person received.
What the numbers show
Sixteen employees made more than $100,000. The highest-paid official was Michael Metke, the chancellor and CEO, at $325,000. Metke's pay is set by the board of trustees.
Metke was followed by Juan Mejia, president for branch locations and district provost at $228,448; Sarah Van Cleef, the chief financial officer at $172,048; and Aubrey Sharpe, the dean of continuing studies, who made $133,697.
No. 5 was Kimberly Lessner, the executive director of marketing, media and communications, at $123,316; No. 6 was Lisa Harper, the dean of institutional effectiveness at $111,571; and No. 7 was Larry Mendez, the chief information officer, at $107,314.
Nos. 8 through 11 all made $107,055. They were Mitch Andrews, executive director of advancement and foundation; Tim Drain, assistant vice president of athletics and student life; Kevin Fowler, the executive director of human resources; and Tampa Nannen, the assistant vice president of academic affairs.
Drain was promoted in August to the title of associate vice provost for student affairs, a promotion that came with additional responsibilities and a raise, according to Van Cleef. She said title changes generally come with raises when a person takes on additional responsibilities.
Van Cleef said staff receive stipends for taking on additional responsibilities, such as when faculty with nine-month contracts teach summer classes, when a person does the administrative work to bring in a new degree or certificate program, or when a person temporarily takes on someone else’s responsibilities during a personnel transition.
The average pay among all employees on the list was $45,593, and the median was $44,497. Half of the employees on the list made between $29,288 and $58,672.
Setting the chancellor's pay at Tyler Junior College
Mike Coker, the chairman of the Tyler Junior College board of trustees, said the board reviews Metke’s salary on an annual basis, usually in January. He said Metke has never asked for a raise, but the board has given them regularly.
Metke started as the president of the college on Dec. 1, 2007, and his salary was $225,000, including allowances, according to Coker. The board gave him the title of chancellor on March 1, a few months after giving him a raise in the ballpark of $40,000, according to Coker.
“I think the board felt that he has done such an outstanding job,” Coker said. “The only time we’ve ever had a chancellor is Harry Jenkins, and he was kind of a legendary figure at the college.”
The Texas Association of Community Colleges, which represents 50 community college districts, publishes a report annually with administrator pay across the state’s community colleges. The latest report, with information as of Sept. 1, 2017, shows that, as of that date, Metke made less than most leaders working in the larger cities, and less than leaders at several comparable colleges offering four-year degrees.
Bruce Leslie at Alamo Colleges in San Antonio made a total compensation of $423,115, according to the data. Cesar Maldonado at Houston Community College made $408,027, and Richard Rhodes at Austin Community College District made $406,658. At the time of the report, Metke’s salary was listed at $279,900.
The pay for CEOs at other community colleges offering four-year degrees included $268,611 for Steve Thomas at Midland College District; $301,840 for Gregory Williams at Odessa College; and $341,000 for Shirley A. Reed at South Texas College. Rhodes at Austin Community College District was the highest in the group, and information for Brazosport College District was not available.
Coker said Metke has improved virtually everything at the school since he started, including building maintenance, academic programs and the quality of students. On Thursday, the college announced a record number of students, some 12,270, were enrolled for the fall 2018 semester.
“I’ve always heard the mark of a good leader is, how do his lieutenants do?’” Coker said. “Fourteen presidents of other community, junior colleges have basically come up under him.”
At the same time, Coker said Metke also has been able to consolidate or eliminate two administrative positions since he started. Coker said that’s a contrast to what is happening at universities nationwide, where the number of administrators is ballooning.
“I just can’t imagine someone doing a better job than Dr. Metke has, and I think the entire board feels that way,” he said.
Faculty pay at Tyler Junior College
Metke said in an interview his faculty is not paid sufficiently, and he would like to start a multiyear process including a salary study in order to change that.
The board of trustees approved a budget for fiscal year 2019, which started Sept. 1, with 2 percent raises across the board, plus some lump-sum raises for lower-paid employees, but Metke said he would like to keep moving the salaries up.
“The kind of people we have here, the qualifications, the dedication, I’d raise their salary by 50 percent and I wouldn’t feel bad at all for what they do and what they give,” Metke said. “We’re just limited to practicality.”
A salary review from the Texas Community College Teachers Association in 2017 found that Tyler Junior College’s 311 faculty made between $35,597 and $85,512, or an average of $54,179.
Across 51 colleges, the study found that there were 11,988 full-time faculty members making an average of $55,716. The average lowest salary was $40,097, and the average highest salary was $84,615.
Tyler Junior College was No. 30 out of 51 for faculty pay in the study. However, TJC's faculty had been there an average of 13 years. Only 10 of the 51 colleges on the list had faculty who stayed in their positions longer on average. Those colleges had averages of 14 to 16 years.
“Even though we pay less, there is not a revolving door,” Van Cleef, who has been at the college for 20 years, said. She said it’s common for people to stay at Tyler Junior College for decades. She pointed to math and physics instructors who have been there more than 40 years.
“It’s such a caring community,” Van Cleef said. “It’s so awesome with kid schedules and things that go on. There are so many activities (on campus) that are free to employees, so that offsets your entertainment budget. To me that’s why you see that longevity.”
Metke said his faculty face an additional hurdle because the college does not contribute to their Social Security retirement. That means people who work at the college their whole careers would not be able to collect Social Security, which requires people to work and contribute to the program for at least 10 years.
Full-time employees are still eligible for retirement benefits through the Teacher Retirement System of Texas or the state's Optional Retirement Program. Full-time employees also have the option of contributing to defined contribution plans similar to 401(k)s.
“Probably one of the more frequent questions I get out in the community is why we pay so little,” Metke said. “We don’t pay as well as we’d like. It’s a goal of mine to raise those salaries and get us at least into the top half.”
Van Cleef said the faculty are nonetheless highly qualified. The school requires professors to have master's degrees, specifically with 18 hours of graduate coursework in the discipline they teach.
As an example, she said her master's in business administration and decades of experience as a certified public accountant don’t qualify her to teach anything at the school because she doesn’t have the 18 credits that are specifically in accounting.
Metke added that in order to get the accreditation to offer four-year degree program — the college offers one in dental hygiene, and recently was approved to offer another in healthcare technologies and medical systems — the entire school’s credentials had to be lifted up.
That means the school has to keep a higher percentage of people with doctorates on faculty than other community colleges, according to Metke.
Meanwhile, Metke said the college is “pretty sparse” in terms of its number of upper-level administrators. He said the college concentrates on meeting its mission related to education instead of adding administrators.
“We’re pretty lean in business,” he said. “We just put our money into instruction, and facilities, and equipment and student services, but you won’t find any real loading of administration here.”
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