University Times

The average salary raise among continuing, full-time Pitt faculty last year – 4.2 percent – exceeded the national average not only among public colleges and universities (2.6 percent) but private ones (4 percent), too, according to the American Association of University Professors. The AAUP’s Annual Report on the Economic Status of the Profession, 2003-04, released this month, is based on data from more than 1,400 U.S. higher education institutions, including Pitt.
The report found that, overall, average faculty salaries increased only 0.2 percent above the rate of increase in the Consumer Price Index (1.9 percent) between December 2002 and December 2003.
“Faculty continuing at the same institution (‘continuing faculty’) received an average salary increase of just 1.2 percent above inflation – the lowest real increase in seven years,” the AAUP stated. “Continuing faculty at nearly 30 percent of the institutions in the AAUP sample received average salary increases that failed to keep up with inflation.
Almost half of all public institutions had faculty in this situation, including some institutions where even continuing faculty saw their salaries decrease.”
This year’s AAUP salary report is titled “Don’t Blame Faculty for High Tuition.” It noted that faculty salaries, sometimes cited as the primary reason for high tuition hikes, rose by much lower percentages than tuition between the 2002-03 and 2003-04 academic years.
Nationally, tuition and fees rose by about 14 percent at public universities and colleges, and 6 percent at private institutions during that time, according to the AAUP.
Pitt increased tuition at the Oakland campus last fall by 9.5 percent for continuing, in-state students and by 7.5 percent for out-of-staters. But the University also adopted a new, differential tuition plan whereby the base tuition for the 2004-05 academic year will be increased by $1,000 for Pennsylvania residents who are first-time, full-time undergraduates on the Oakland campus and by $500 for out-of-state students here. New in-state, full-time undergrads at Pitt’s Bradford, Greensburg and Johnstown campuses will be charged $200 extra. There will be no differential rate at the Titusville campus.
For public institutions, the real cost driver is decreased public funding, according to the AAUP. Last year, 23 states (including Pennsylvania) reduced funding for higher education; only 15 states increased higher-ed funding above the rate of inflation, the report noted.
“Nationally, state appropriations for higher education in fiscal 2004 declined by 2.1 percent, the first such decline in 11 years. This cut followed a year in which state appropriations for higher education rose by only 1.2 percent,” the AAUP stated.
Pitt absorbed harsher percentage cuts in its state funding – 5 percent last year, and 3.7 percent (plus a subsequent 2 percent freeze) the year before – although Pitt relies considerably less on state funding than most public universities nationally. Less than 12 percent of the University’s total operating budget comes from Harrisburg.
Based on the AAUP report, Pitt faculty salaries should have gained ground within the Association of American Universities (AAU) since last year, at least among the AAU’s 34 public members.
The AAU is a group of prominent North American research universities that includes public institutions such as Pitt, Penn State and the state systems of California and New York, as well as Ivy League schools and other private universities, including Carnegie Mellon and the University of Pennsylvania.
An annual in-house report by Pitt’s Office of Institutional Research, showing how faculty salaries here rank within the AAU, is expected to be released next month to the University Senate’s budget policies committee. Last year’s report showed that Pitt ranked at, or above, the median among the 34 AAU public institutions at the assistant, associate and full professor ranks.
The new AAUP report lists the average salaries of Pittsburgh campus professors ($105,600), associate professors ($70,200), assistant professors ($61,600) and instructors ($42,300).
– Bruce Steele