University Times

The administration should plan to in- crease faculty salaries budget by 5.5 percent next year — or 6-7 percent, if Pitt hopes to raise its faculty salaries to the average paid at Association of American Universities (AAU) schools within the next two to three years, according to a University Senate committee.

In a recent recommendation to the Pitt administration, the Senate's budget policies committee (BPC) noted that Pittsburgh campus full professors trailed the AAU median last year by $5,800, associate professors by $3,600, and assistant professors by $3,700. Faculty librarians ranked near the bottom of their AAU/American Research Libraries comparison group, and trailed the median by $5,400.

Pitt's state funding request for the fiscal year that begins July 2001 is due Sept. 22. BPC called on the Pitt administration to re-articulate, in its funding request, Pitt's goal of raising its average salaries to at least the AAU median for each rank.

"Within the context of this sound and reasonable policy commitment, it seems necessary, and [BPC] recommends, that the University plan for a salary increase pool of at least 5.5 percent," the committee wrote. "If we hope to improve our comparative standing over the next two to three years, an increase of 6 to 7 percent will probably be required."

While Pitt senior administrators have not renounced the goal of reaching the median for faculty salaries paid at all AAU schools (including private institutions such as Harvard and MIT), they have repeatedly argued that a fairer comparison would be between Pitt and its fellow public AAU schools. Among the 32 public AAU institutions last year, Pitt ranked 20th for salaries of full professors, 19th for associate professors and 20th for assistant professors.

Chancellor Mark Nordenberg said Sept. 11 that the administration was still drafting its FY 2001-2002 funding request to Harrisburg. Nordenberg said he'd received BPC's recommendation but had not studied it in detail yet. "Certainly, its general thrust is something with which I agree," he said.

Last year, BPC recommended a 5.2 percent increase in Pitt's salary pool. The actual increase was 4.5 percent.

— Bruce Steele