Marye Anne Fox’s exit from NC State for UC-San Diego has reignited the question of whether UNC pays its _________s (footnote 1) enough. As The News & Observer reports, Fox is paid $248,225 at NC State and will earn $350,000 at UCSD, and therefore UNC Board of Governors members “worry that UNC chancellors could be hired away easily by other universities.”

But not so fast. Given the cost of living differences between San Diego and Raleigh (footnote 2), Marye Anne Fox’s purchasing power under her Raleigh salary ($256,696) is slightly higher than that under her new one in San Diego ($253,623).

Could this mean that salary concerns might not be the motivating factor for Fox’s decision to leave? What would that mean for the UNC board’s theory? Also, what does it mean that the last NC State chancellor retired (i.e., wasn’t recruited away) under a salary that is, in nominative terms, the minimum the UNC system wants to spend on just the search committee to find Fox’s replacement? (Of course, the previous chancellor, Larry K. Monteith, was an internal hire ? and where’s the fun in that?)

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NOTES

1. Fill in the blank with whatever position is held by the exiting employee: staffer, professor, administrator, chancellor.

2. My source for cost of living data for San Diego and Raleigh is the ACCRA Cost of Living Index, Third Quarter 2003.