Administrators say the university continues to underpay faculty, despite a recent national survey ranking them as the 16th highest paid among public universities in the United States.
According to a survey by the American Association of University Professors, the average salary for full professors is $111,037, putting it last in rankings compared to the university’s aspirational peer institutions. Administrators said the faculty members have been historically underpaid and are still requesting more funding from the state to narrow the gap from comparable universities.
University of California, Los Angeles ranks No. 1 for highest-paid professors among public universities at $123,328, $22,000 more than what faculty at this university receive.
However, the reported high numbers for faculty salary do not show the whole story because of the higher cost of living in this area, Provost Bill Destler said.
“We live in an area with a high cost of living, and we don’t adjust to that,” Destler said. He added that the salaries seem high but aren’t.
The core of the problem lies with the state’s drastic budget shortfalls, beginning in 2002, where funding for the university was cut by $120 million. The university laid off workers and had implemented a hiring freeze for two years to stabilize the budget.
At one point, the university was beginning to catch up with its peers institutions, but after the budget cuts, the salary rankings dropped once again, university spokesman George Cathcart said.
Neither the merit nor the cost of living pay for faculty and staff increased in fiscal years 2003 and 2004, but last year, staff received a 2.5 percent increase in cost of living pay and a $752 flat increase in merit pay. In fiscal year 2006, staff members will receive a 2.5 percent increase in cost of living and a 1.5 percent increase in merit, but that does not pertain to faculty. The merit increases are based on a case-by-case basis, which does not guarantee increases for everyone, Destler said.
The university faces another pressing problem. The student-to-teacher ratio is steady, at about 20 students per faculty member, but there is no question that there are too few staff compared to faculty, Destler said.
“The staff we do have work too hard and we have faculty doing staff work,” he said. “It’s not healthy for the institution in the long run.”
To stabilize the budget the university chose not to rehire 528 personnel who left out of 7,422 total positions, according to figures from December. Many of the vacancies are staff related.
Destler said more staff and increasing faculty salaries are both top priorities for the university, but it needs more funding. University President Dan Mote testified to the General Assembly in March, telling them they need to keep salaries competitive.
“We are always in a war with other universities to retain our faculty,” said Ann Wylie, Mote’s chief of staff.
According to the AAUP survey, faculty members are getting slightly larger raises than last year, but not higher than this year’s inflation rate, 3.3 percent, for the first time in eight years.
While the university lags behind in full-time professors’ salaries, the pay for assistant professors is comparable to peer institutions. In fall 2003, the university ranked second among its peers for assistant professor wages at an average of $69,985, above the overall average of $65,361, Cathcart said. The university concentrated on recruiting its assistant professors, who can later be promoted to full professors, Wylie said.
The faculty also play a critical role in contributing to the university, Destler said. The average faculty members pay about half their own salaries because faculty members bring in about $350 million in research and receive much less return, he said.
“They’re worth every penny they pay themselves,” Destler said.
In February, the analysts from the Department of Legislative Services suggested University System of Maryland presidents may be overpaid compared to comparable institutions. Mote made $358,000 last year, which is $46,000 more than the average salary for a university president.
Wylie said the two salaries are totally unrelated because the president ultimately oversees all faculty and staff operations.
“It’s completely unfound,” she said. “He’s not the least bit overpaid, in fact he’s underpaid.”
