IU falls behind in faculty salaries nationwide

Average salary increases among IU's faculty fell behind the national average this academic year. \nAccording to a survey, faculty salaries rose 3.2 percent nationally, whereas IU's faculty salaries increased just 2.8 percent on average, said Neil Theobald, vice chancellor of budgetary affairs and planning. \nThe difference stems from less state and tuition funding compared with other Big Ten institutions, Theobald said. Of the Big Ten's 10 public institutions, IU is last in state funding and eighth in tuition revenue, he said.\n"We have a resource problem, and we're significantly underfunded in relation to our peers," Theobald said.\nThe survey was conducted by the College and University Professional Association for Human Resources.\nWhile IU's faculty salaries aren't rising as quickly as other institutions', competition is always there for IU-Bloomington's top professors. As of Monday, Theobald said 54 faculty members in the College of Arts and Sciences, and probably many more from around the University, have received offers from outside institutions.\nIn an effort to keep its top professors, IU has given its most prestigious faculty members higher salaries compared with other faculty. Although the faculty's average increase was 2.8 percent, the faculty's median, or middle, growth was just 2 percent, Theobald said.\n"The reason for the big difference was there were a few faculty members that received much more than the median," Theobald said. "We had a lot of outside offers. Other universities want to recruit our best faculty. They pay more. We made a real effort to keep those faculties."\nTed Miller, chairman of the Faculty Affairs Committee of the Bloomington Faculty Council, speculated that faculty salary increases nationally reflect gains in the U.S. economy. In the last four of five years, Miller said, state budgets were in "terrible, terrible shape" because of declines in the stock market and the post-Sept. 11 economic recession.\n"We've kind of come out of that recession," Miller said. "Some states have been able to catch up a little bit. Indiana is lagging behind being able to come out of the recession."\nOf IUB's $618.5 million in revenue, $200 million comes from state funding, and $366 million comes from tuition revenue, Theobald said. \nAlthough IU's salary increases were eclipsed nationally this year, last year the opposite was true. Theobald said IU raised its faculty's salaries 2.7 percent last academic year. On the other hand, average faculty salaries rose just 2.1 percent nationally last year and only 1.4 percent at public universities, an article in The Chronicle of Higher Education, referencing the CUPA-HR report, said.\nMiller said the IU Board of Trustees is doing everything possible to maintain competitive salaries for IU faculty members.\n"They understand that faculty salaries are an important competitive factor for Indiana University as it tries to compete with other universities to hire the kind of faculty members we want here at IU," Miller said.\nThe American Association of University Professors also measures faculty salaries. Unlike the CUPA-HR, however, AAUP reports its data by institution rather than by academic discipline.\nIn an April 2004 Bloomington campus AAUP report, IU placed ninth amongst Big Ten public institutions in terms of average professors' salaries, paying on average $81,000. Topping the list was Michigan, which pays its faculty an average of $93,600. In-state Purdue placed tenth, paying an average of $79,600.\nProfessors' salaries partly depend on their field. The CUPA-HR's survey said the average faculty member nationally earns $66,407. \nThe top earners nationally were law professors, who made an average salary of $111,909, and business and engineering faculty members, who took in more than $80,000 per year.\nThe lowest paid areas of instruction were English, communication programs and recreation studies, areas in which average faculty salaries averaged less than $57,000, the CUPA-HR survey said.\n-- Contact Staff Writer John Rodgers at jprodger@indiana.edu.