It’s a tale as old as time: the poor get poorer and the rich get richer. It’s a hard pill to swallow, but one that we as a society have been conditioned to do anyway, especially in today’s economy. To see this idea play out on UCF’s campus, a school that has long-promised fair compensation to its employees, comes as a great disappointment to its students and faculty.
Earlier this year, UCF President Alexander Cartwright accepted a 33% increase to his paycheck, totaling his salary to $1.2 million. This followed directly after UCF faculty were denied an 8% increase to employees’ base salaries, receiving no raises for the 2025-26 fiscal year.
This is not the first instance where faculty have asked to be compensated fairly. In 2021, UCF received an additional $314 million following the pandemic with $165 million used toward “institutional expenses,” and not a cent of the remaining $122 million was given to faculty. Dr. Robert Cassanello, professor and United Faculty of Florida at UCF president, says that confronting the university about where these funds go is a hopeless endeavor.
“Whenever we bring up the budget and ask questions about how the money is spent, and what the rationale is for spending said money, we never really get a straight answer,” Cassanello said.
In 2024, UCF received “an additional $50 million in funds for their budget for the 2024-2025 fiscal year” from the state, but apparently, this was still not enough to give raises to faculty. Dr. Talat Rahman, professor and chief negotiator for UFF-UCF, says that the lack of raises to faculty poses detrimental effects.
“We have faculty members that make less than $50,000 a year,” Rahman said. “You can imagine what impact a lack of a salary raise has on them. Your dollars today can be worth less than your dollars of yesterday, so no raise can technically mean you’re getting a cut in your salary.”
When met with upset faculty like Rahman, Cartwright reassured them that their time would come when the university met preeminent status.
“We must invest in our people,” Cartwright said. “Our first investment in preeminence funds will be a raise program for faculty and staff, the dedicated people who power our impact.”
On Sept. 22, 2025, preeminent status was finally met. Yet, faculty are still fighting to receive the pay they deserve. Rahman calls it “a slap in the face.”
“We are committed to our students because, for us to see our students do well is really a reward, but that doesn’t mean that we should be taken for granted,” Rahman said. “That doesn’t mean that we should not be given cost-of-living increases, and that doesn’t mean that high raises can be given to top administrators and not to us.”
The frustration of faculty has even spread to students, who have asserted themselves as allies to faculty and staff. The issue caught the attention of one student who has built a following on social media by impersonating a cartoon cat. The student, known anonymously as “UCF Kitty,” has spent the past few months posting videos to Instagram and TikTok, criticizing UCF.
In one video, UCF Kitty spoke directly to Cartwright, “How does it feel to make 1.2 million dollars a year? How does it feel knowing that so many of your staff live paycheck to paycheck? It’s not too late to change. It’s not too late to stand with the people your career depends on.”
The video, which has now been shared nearly 700 times, has raised conversations surrounding unequal pay within the university, but Cartwright has yet to comment.
The bottom line is that faculty are the foundation of UCF. UCF claims that its priority lies in furthering the success of its students. It is time for the university to acknowledge that the success of students is made possible through the hard work and dedication of their educators.
“We have one message for the administration,” said Cassanello. “If you’re not going to recognize your employees for student success, if you’re not going to compensate your employees for student success, if you’re not going to nurture an environment and space unfettered by political interference in the classroom, we ask that you reconsider your priorities.”
The problem isn’t that there is no money. The problem is that institutional greed has overshadowed the virtue of fair pay. Professors like Cassanello have long stated their need for adjusted pay and deserve to be heard by their employer.