The salaries of professors at Ohio University have fallen compared to their peers around the state, as growth in faculty compensation has slowed nationwide, according to a study released this week.
Monday, the American Association of University Professors released its annual faculty salaries report, announcing that when adjusted for inflation, professors this year will earn less in actual salary for the first time since the 1970s.
The average full professor at OU earns $99,200 this year, compared to $100,000 last year. The average associate professor earns $73,900 this year, and the average assistant professor earns $61,100.
The economic situation now confronting faculty members is as stark as we have seen in decades
the association stated in a summary of the report. Much of the news is bad but the significance of each component varies from one institution to another.
OU's state salary rankings for all tenured and tenure-track professors fell since last year.
OU dropped from third among 12 state institutions in full professor salary last year to seventh this year - with the average salary for an OU professor dropping 0.8 percent. It dropped from second to sixth for associate professor compensation and from fifth to seventh in assistant professor compensation.
Average faculty salaries have dropped at OU because there were no raises for any university employees last year and faculty retirements cut back on higher-paid professors in favor of newer, lower-paid teachers, said Joe McLaughlin, OU's Faculty Senate chairman.
While OU ranked above some of its state peers in actual salaries, assistant and associate professors at OU saw the largest percent pay decreases of any Ohio public institution this year. Full-time professors saw the second-largest decrease in the state.
The association and state data only address faculty salaries, not overall compensation. Health care costs and other benefits are not factored in.
The report's release coincides with ongoing debate about proposed OU budget cuts for next year. OU President Roderick McDavis announced two weeks ago that he recommended a 1 percent raise pool for all employees, including faculty, next year. There is also an additional $750,000 raise pool for faculty if OU meets its enrollment targets. Faculty Senate had pushed for a higher pool of at least 2 percent.
McLaughlin has been advocating higher faculty raises for the past few years, in response to the university's perceived move away from priorities outlined in its 2007 strategic plan.
Despite the fact that in several versions of Vision Ohio faculty compensation has been named as a top university priority the budgetary decisions are not aligned with that rhetoric
McLaughlin said, adding the state-level data is particularly damaging. It says that all of these institutions are part of the same economy and subject to the same state budget pressures and in that shared context
we're doing worse than every other institution.
Norma Pecora, president of the OU chapter of the AAUP, a group that has been urging faculty to unionize for two years, said the data didn't surprise her.
It certainly doesn't surprise us that we've dropped so far behind the other universities and particularly the universities with collective bargaining here in Ohio
she said. We're all suffering from the financial fallout
just like everyone else is. ... The problem is where they're putting their efforts and energies to save money.
OU's AAUP chapter, Faculty Senate and other faculty groups have been critical of McDavis' budget decisions, particularly the 1 percent raise pool and a reluctance to discuss funding for Intercollegiate Athletics.
Becky Watts, McDavis' chief of staff, said the president's budget decisions this year do reflect OU's strategic priorities, but that any ranking drop is troubling.
Any time that you see the university falling back as it ranks with our in-state peer institutions or our aspirational peer institutions
it is a concern
Watts said.
McLaughlin and Pecora said they intend to continue pushing for more progress on faculty compensation, arguing OU's current backward movement could hurt efforts to recruit new professors.
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