University Times

Average salaries of full, associate and assistant professors at the Pittsburgh campus lost ground last year compared with the median of salaries at other American Association of Universities (AAU) schools.

No surprise there. Last year, Pitt awarded average raises of 2.1 percent for professors, 2 percent for associate profs and 2.2 percent for assistant professors. Median raises at other AAU schools were 4.1 percent for professors, 3.7 percent for associate professors, and 3.8 percent for assistant professors.

Even Pittsburgh campus librarians, whose raises averaged 7 percent, saw their salaries slip a bit compared with averages among the 55 AAU universities that belong to the Association of Research Libraries. (Among the other 54 research libraries, raises averaged 3.3 percent.) The AAU is a group of North American research universities that includes public institutions such as Pitt and the state systems of California and New York, as well as Ivy League schools and other private universities, including Carnegie Mellon.

Pitt's administration and University Senate groups agreed during the 1980s that Pitt should aim to raise faculty salaries here to the AAU median for each faculty rank. Pitt hasn't met that goal yet, although average salaries for some ranks have met or exceeded the AAU medians over the years.

According to a report released last week by Pitt's Office of Institutional Research, the average salary of a Pittsburgh campus full professor this year ($80,800) ranks 42nd among 60 AAU institutions in the United States, down from 35th place last year.

The average salary of a Pittsburgh campus associate professor ($56,400) dropped from 32nd to 39th place.

For assistant professors (average salary: $45,700), the Pittsburgh campus ranks 51st, down from 46th last year.

Harvard pays the highest average salary for full professors ($116,800) of any AAU school. The California Institute of Technology ranks No. 1 for average salaries of associate professors ($77,900) and assistant professors ($63,500).

Salaries at the University of Oregon rank at the bottom of the AAU for full professors ($64,300) and associate professors ($48,300). Catholic University of America had the lowest average salaries for assistant professors ($41,600).

Average salaries of Pittsburgh campus librarians ($41,300) dropped from 51st to 52nd place among the 55 AAU universities in the Association of Research Libraries.

Among the 55 schools, the University of California-Irvine pays the highest average salary for librarians ($62,000). The University of Florida pays the lowest ($39,200).

Among the 17 AAU branch campuses that focus exclusively or almost entirely on baccalaureate-level education (classified as AAU Category IIB institutions), Pitt's Bradford campus ranked 8th for salaries of full professors (Bradford average: $54,900), tied with the Greensburg campus for 13th place for associate professors ($44,000) and 14th for assistant professors ($35,900).

The Greensburg campus ranks 10th for salaries of full professors ($52,800), tied with Bradford for 13th place for associate professors ($44,000) and 16th for assistant professors ($34,700).

The Johnstown campus ranks 6th for salaries of full professors ($58,000), 9th for associate professors ($46,000) and 17th for assistant professors ($33,200).

Among the 17 Category IIB campuses, average salaries ranged from $65,200 for full professors at Ohio State-Newark to $33,200 for assistant professors at Pitt-Johnstown.

Among the four AAU campuses that confer at least 75 percent of their degrees below the bachelor's level (Category III), Pitt's Titusville campus ranks last in average salaries for associate professors (Titusville average: $37,900) and assistant professors ($31,700). Because Titusville employs fewer than five full professors, salary information for that rank was not reported.

Penn State campuses pay the highest average salaries in Category III for full ($60,000), asssociate ($49,700) and assistant ($41,800) professors.

The Office of Institutional Research report is based on data published in the March/April issue of Academe, the journal of the American Association of University Professors (AAUP) and in the 1997-98 Association of Research Libraries Salary Survey.

Institutional Research staff cited what they called a number of problems inherent in the AAUP data:

— The AAUP reported on faculty salaries for a nine-month academic year. "As a result, average salaries of institutions with a large proportion of faculty on 12-month contracts can be seriously misrepresented," the report states. "At the Pittsburgh campus, 514 out of the 1,307 total instructional faculty had 12-month contracts. The ratio one uses to concert a 12-month salary to a nine-month equivalent may vary among institutions and one can debate the rationale for converting the salaries at all."

— Faculty members' ages and tenure status are not taken into account. Universities with proportionately more senior and tenured faculty tend to pay higher salaries.

– The data don't account for faculty discipline areas. Schools that emphasize technical and/or high-demand fields such as engineering and business tend to pay higher salaries than liberal arts schools.

"This point particularly brings into question the appropriateness of comparing public institutions to private institutions," the report states.

"While the public university has a responsibility to teach a broad spectrum of topics, thereby limiting the ability to specialize heavily, private institutions are not so bound. In addition, private schools often lack the limits placed on public institutions in terms of compliance with state and federal governance rules and also reliance on public funds." Limiting comparisons to the 32 public AAU schools, Pitt would rank 18th in average salaries for full professors (down from 14th last year), 15th for associate professors (down from 10th last year) and 26th for assistant professors (down from 23rd last year).

Among public AAU universities that belong to the Association of Research Libraries, Pitt would rank 30th out of 32 institutions in librarians' average salaries ã the same as last year.

ã Bruce Steele