As Ohio University faculty salaries continue to fall compared to other state schools, Faculty Senate questioned whether administrators are still bound by promises made 20 and 30 years ago to keep faculty compensation competitive.
In 1976, the Ohio University Board of Trustees - following the recommendation of then-President Charles Ping - made it a priority for OU's faculty salaries to rank in the top 25 percent statewide. At the time, OU was eighth of the 10 institutions considered. Nationally, OU placed in the lowest category for all faculty ranks.
Ping became president in 1975 after many tenure-track professors had been notified they were being laid off as part of budget cuts. Ping reversed the decision to terminate Group I contracts.
Ping said that he asked the board to make faculty salaries a top priority because he saw morale suffering from deep budget cuts and loss of faculty lines. Still, he said the previous administration had made the right decision in preserving jobs over salary increases.
I was concerned about it because I did my homework and discovered that we had been ... right at the top (in the state) ... I think the institution and its faculty had made a very wise choice that they would spare people's jobs
he said. Now we were trying to right the ship and I felt faculty morale was an important thing.
In 1988, the board again emphasized it was a priority to bring salaries into the top quartile - an achievement OU reached and maintained as recently as last year, but has since fallen into the third quartile.
This year, OU fell from third among 12 state institutions in full professor salary last year to seventh - 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, according to a study by the American Association of University Professors.
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.
Ping suggested faculty and administrators look at more than just one year's worth of data in making decisions, and at Faculty Senate, some senators seemed to be encouraging that as well.
On salaries please pay attention not only to the most recent developments ... In my opinion it's not that bad
Engineering Senator Rudy Pasic said. However
our salary has been depressed for the last 10 years ... So please pay attention to that.
OU is cutting $13.75 million from its budget for next year, including some non-tenure and non-tenure-track faculty positions. Faculty and staff, however, are receiving a 1 percent raise and Group I faculty are eligible for merit increases from an estimated $750,000 pool if OU meets its enrollment targets.
Four years ago, current OU President Roderick McDavis and then-Provost Kathy Krendl committed to increasing faculty salaries through yearly investments of $1.2 million for merit raises during the course of five years. That was in addition to whatever raise pool the university decided on for across-the-board increases.
The university met that commitment for the first two years but, because of budget cuts, gave no raises last year and will provide only a 1 percent across-the-board increase this year.
McDavis said he is committed to continuing the program he and Krendl established as soon as possible.
We have three years of that commitment left. We intend to fulfill that commitment as we go into the future
and we may have to extend that
he said, adding that because of the economic crisis, he thinks faculty morale now could be comparable to the mid-1970s.
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Emily Grannis
