Faculty cheddar - not so sharp
Administration salaries rank high, but faculty salaries don’t match up
May 20, 2008Eric Johnson
Staff Reporter
“When I came here in the early 1980s, faculty salaries at Albion College were in the top 5 percent of the colleges in the country,” said Robert Messer, a tenured mathematics professor. “Since that time faculty salaries have eroded to the point that we are not even in the top 20 percent of the undergraduate institutions in the country.”
This year the salary pool for faculty members increased 2 percent, with an additional 1 percent set aside for promotions, merit raises, bonuses and equity adjustments. The Board of Trustees’ budget projections, announced at a faculty meeting last spring, projected annual raises of 2 percent for the next four to five years. The Budget, Salary, and Benefits Committee is in the process of trying to get this changed.
The projected rate of inflation for 2004 is 3 percent.
For the 2003-04 school year, the average professor at Albion College earned $89,500, the average associate professor earned $71,200, the average assistant instructor earned $58,100 and the average instructor earned $49,900, according to Larry Steinhauer, head of the Budget, Salary, and Benefits Committee. All figures are a total of annual pay and compensation.
According to the 2004 Academe, which is put out by the American Association of University Professors (AAUP) and was published last April, for the 2003-04 school year, Albion was ranked ninth out of 12 schools for total faculty compensation in the Great Lakes College Association (GLCA), and eighth out of 12 in faculty salary alone.
In the Michigan Intercollegiate Athletic Association (MIAA), Albion is ranked fourth out of eight schools in terms of faculty pay levels, which is determined by combining pay levels of professors, associate professors, assistant instructors and instructors. Calvin College is ranked first, followed by Adrian College and Alma College.
For the 2003-04 school year, there was a 2.9 percent increase for faculty salaries with an additional 2.1 percent set aside for promotions, merit raises, bonuses and equity adjustments, according to that year’s cover letter. Inflation in 2003 was 2.2 percent.
The average increase nationally for continuing professors at four-year private baccalaureate colleges was 3.6 percent, according to a survey conducted by the AAUP.
“The faculty Budget, Salary, and Benefits Committee would like to see us in the upper half of the GLCA [for faculty salaries], and the Board of Trustees supports this goal,” said Royal Ward, vice president of Academic Affairs, in an e-mail response. “It’s been difficult to make headway because the salaries at all the schools are always going up, and probably everyone in the bottom half wants to be in the top half. To get from the bottom half to the top half will take a substantial boost, since everyone else tends to move at about the same rate.”
The top administrators at Albion get paid much more than any faculty member. For the 2002-03 school year, President Peter Mitchell earned $319,402 in pay and benefits, Ward earned $134,172, Dale Dopp, vice president of Finance and Management, earned $171,665, Sally Walker, vice president of Student Affairs and dean of students, earned $153,206, Troy VanAken, vice president for Instructional Technology and executive assistant to the President for Athletics, earned $136,620, Ben Hancock, vice president for Institutional Advancement, earned $220,218 and David Hawsey, vice president for Enrollment, earned $154,499. Information was taken from Albion College’s 2002-03 990 form, which was released in May 2004.
These administrators, with the exception of Mitchell (who answered in regard to a previous article about his compensation), did not respond to e-mailed questions regarding their salaries.
The four highest paid employees other than the aforementioned officers, directors and trustees earned salaries greater than those of faculty members as well. Butch Dyer, director of the Gerstacker Institute, earned $107,536 in 2002-03 along with $28,974 in contributions to employee benefit plans and deferred compensation; James Whitehouse, associate vice president for Gift and Estate Planning, earned $88,119 along with $33,336 in contributions to employee benefit plans and deferred compensation; Doug Keller, associate vice president for Enrollment, earned $87,666 along with $27,511 in contributions to employee benefit plans and deferred compensation; and Peter Hart, then the director of athletics and assistant to the president before leaving in the fall of 2003, earned $77,370 along with $39,277 in contributions to employee benefit plans and deferred compensation.
“For 2002-03, the president’s compensation was 4.5 times the average faculty compensation,” Messer said. “Furthermore, there was only one faculty member among the top 12 highest paid employees at Albion College.”
Messer is referring to economics professor James McCarley, who made $82,213 along with $26,835 in contributions to his employee benefit plans and deferred compensation. He has been at Albion for 30 years.
Albion students have varying opinions on this matter.
“I feel that the administration should be paid more than the professors because they collectively have more responsibility for the total direction and future of the college,” said Kevin Winsjansen, Flat Rock junior.
On the other hand, Jeff Chicoski, Lincoln Park senior, said, “I think that it is a problem when professors, who work just as hard as administrators, get paid less. They have a more personal impact on the students’ lives and students benefit most from them.”
Some professors feel that the discrepancy needs to be lessened or eliminated.
“My hope is that Albion will not again see substantially larger percentage pay increases for senior administrators than for faculty anytime soon,” said Gregory Saltzman, professor of economics and management. “I was pleased that President Mitchell and the Trustees agreed to increase faculty salaries by more than inflation in 2003 as a first step toward addressing the problem.”
