WILMINGTON – Great professors are the heart of an institution.  But until this year, faculty at North Carolina’s public universities had received just one raise from the state legislature in seven years.

“To attract and retain great faculty, it’s a challenge,” UNC Wilmington Chancellor Jose “Zito” Sartarelli says in the accompanying video.

Sartarelli notes that university faculty received a 1.5% raise from the state this year – but there haven’t been many such raises in recent years.

“It was a step in the right direction.  And we urge, in fact, the legislature to continue doing so,” he says.

“Because as anything else in life, if you want great performance from people, you also have to be commensurate – you have to incentivize behavior,” he says.  “Adequate salaries – attractive salaries – are important.”