Faculty salaries are not keeping up with inflation, but salaries for administrators and some coaches have continued to rise at a rate more than four times inflation, according to a report released today.
The American Association of University Professors found that for three of the past four years, professor salaries nationally have lagged behind inflation. Professor salaries rose 3.8 percent on average this year, compared to a 4.1 percent inflation rate.
At Ohio University, Group I faculty salaries rose 4.4 percent between 2004 and 2006 to an average of $91,995. Group I includes tenured and tenure-track faculty; there are 1,093 Group I faculty at OU, including regional campuses.
During the same time period, salaries for OU's top 35 administrators rose 16.9 percent to an average of $163,551.
Salaries and staffing are matters of institutional priorities
and the questions we are asking are about how those priorities are determined the AAUP report states.
The AAUP is a national organization that promotes faculty unionization. The OU chapter sponsored a vote of no-confidence on OU President Roderick McDavis last spring.
The report compared faculty earnings to those of top administrators and head football coaches. At OU this year, McDavis's salary is $294,665 and football coach Frank Solich makes $257,162.
A 2007 report from OU's Office of Institutional Research found that among the university's 10 national peer institutions, OU ranks 10th for professors, 10th for associate professors, 11th for assistant professors and 10th for all ranks combined in terms of Group I salaries. McDavis chose OU's peers as part of the Vision Ohio initiative in 2004.
Faculty Senate has worked with the administration to provide more funding for raises and merit pay. OU's strategic plan calls for a 3 percent increase in faculty salaries and an additional $1.2 million for faculty compensation based on merit.
However, Budget Planning Council announced last week that it recommends delaying a final decision on whether to increase faculty salaries until the state announces its funding plans for next year.
If we were to make a decision today and give the 3 percent raise G? we would be locked into that said John Day, associate provost for academic budgeting. What [Budget Planning Council] has done is put jobs over salaries at this point. And if everything works out
we'll have jobs and salaries.
English professor Joe McLaughlin, a member of Budget Planning Council, said committee members were caught off-guard when administrators proposed delaying the decision.
This is kind of a wait-and-see decision
said McLaughlin, who also chairs the Finance and Facilities committee of Faculty Senate. The problem here is
we have to decide now if the raises can begin July 1 G? (and) we're locked in
and it commits us to budget cuts.
Budget Planning Council voted unanimously, with McLaughlin abstaining, to wait to make a decision on raises.
I abstained because I don't like the way this got sprung on us
he said, adding he wished the committee had been given time to explore other options. The cost of everything is going up right now G? and we need an increase in our salaries G? just to stay even.
Journalism professor Bernhard Debatin said Budget Planning Council's decision to wait could show state officials that OU is already prepared to deal with a cut in state funding.
This is what I call pre-emptive obedience
Debatin said. We are not only agreeing to have our leg cut off
we're telling them how to do it.
McLaughlin said he has also heard complaints from faculty about salary differences between faculty and administrators and coaches. Day explained that a large salary increase is sometimes a new person being hired at what the market demands.
Professors, however, suggest administrators are creating the market conditions they cite as the reason for increased administrative salaries.
Former AAUP chapter treasurer Joe Bernt, a faculty senator for the Scripps College of Communications, pointed out that when new faculty are hired to replace exiting professors, they are hired for less money than the previous person earned.
From a faculty standpoint
when I retire
