Two reports released in the past week reached different conclusions about where faculty salaries at Ohio University stand.
In its annual report, the American Association of University Professors found OU's Athens campus to be in the 40th percentile for professor and associate professor compensation and in the 20th percentile for assistant professor compensation, compared to other schools nationally.
This is really dreadful
said Marsha Dutton, an English professor and vice president of OU-AAUP. This includes the raises and so that means that even with the raises that we almost didn't get last year we're still at the bottom.
OU administrators, however, say faculty here are doing well compared to their peers across the state. Kathy Krendl, OU's executive vice president and provost, reported to Faculty Senate last week that OU moved from sixth to third in compensation for professors in a statewide study, and from third to second in compensation for associate professors. The university remained in fifth place for assistant professor compensation.
Krendl's report also dealt with the thorny issue of faculty versus administrative pay. Of the top 100 earners at OU, 43 are faculty and 57 are administrators, according to the report, and of the people making $100,000 or more, 161 are faculty and 95 are administrators.
There are 14 administrators making $200,000 or more. There are only three faculty members earning more than $180,000.
Unlike the AAUP and state numbers, Krendl's report included faculty in the College of Osteopathic Medicine. Dutton said high salaries in that college could skew the faculty data. Krendl said the data submitted for state and national comparison includes College of Medicine faculty in a separate category.
The AAUP report did give OU good marks in faculty benefits, though Dutton said she's not optimistic that will continue through next year.
We're ranking above a lot of schools in terms of benefits
but that's going to go down this year
she said. Faculty will be paying more for health care through a new plan the president implemented last month.
The AAUP report was cautious and warned that the numbers may not reflect the full impact of the economic crisis.
The concern is that we haven't really captured what's going on because the data are reflecting more the data from last summer when salary levels were being set as opposed to the reality that's really hitting now
said John Curtis, AAUP director of public policy and research, adding they have already heard reports of faculty salary reductions, layoffs, non-renewals and furloughs.
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Emily Grannis
