University Times

The Faculty Senate at Pitt’s Johnstown campus voted unanimously last week to submit a letter to the editor of the University Times regarding comparative faculty salaries.

Johnstown faculty want to bring to the University public’s attention their low salary levels compared to professors at peer public regional campus institutions and to begin a dialogue on the issue, according to Richard Ulsh, president of the UPJ Faculty Senate.

Ulsh asked his counterpart faculty leaders at the other three Pitt regional campuses to bring the letter to their respective councils for review. He expects feedback after Nov. 8, following the last of the faculty council meetings.

Ulsh told the University Times following the Oct. 20 vote, “I am not at liberty to reveal the contents of the letter at this point, because the other regionals are looking at it. We would like to get the consent and support of these other [faculty] bodies, but they may have comments on the intent, content or tone of the letter.

“I want to stress that this letter is not controversial,” Ulsh continued. “We are not challenging anybody. We are seeking a dialogue. We would like to find ways to work with the administration, perhaps by giving them some data for when they present their case to Harrisburg [for commonwealth appropriations].”

Ulsh pointed out that Pitt’s central administration is on record as wanting to bring faculty salaries at the Pittsburgh campus up to at least the midpoint among public AAU institutions. “This is a goal, and they’ve made progress on that goal,” Ulsh said. “We would like to know if this is also a goal for our campus and the other regionals, and if so, what the suitable timeframe would be for realizing that goal.”

Ulsh said that the impetus for the UPJ Faculty Senate vote was a May 27 University Times story reporting on 2002-03 faculty salaries at the 17 Association of American Universities (AAU) public university branch campuses that focus on baccalaureate education.

(The AAU is a group of 60 prominent public and private North American research universities.)

The source for the data in that story was the annual report on comparative salaries at all professional levels published in the March-April issue of Academe, the journal of the American Association of University Professors.

“That article reported the regionals as [ranking] in the bottom half, which is true,” Ulsh said. “But I did more calculations and figured out that the [three Pitt regionals in that category] as a whole averaged 13th in the rankings, which puts us in the bottom fifth.”

According to the Academe report, of the 17 institutions in the rankings, the Johnstown campus ranked 17th during 2002-03 for average salary of full professors ($62,900), 11th for associate professors ($54,500) and 12th for assistant professors ($44,700).

Pitt’s Bradford campus ranked 16th for average salary of full professors ($65,300), 15th for associate professors ($53,700) and 10th for assistant professors ($45,100).

Pitt’s Greensburg campus ranked 13th for average salary of full professors ($66,100), 12th for associate professors ($54,200) and 14th for assistant professors ($43,200).

Pitt’s Titusville campus was ranked in a separate category among the three AAU public university satellite campuses that confer at least 75 percent of their degrees below the bachelor’s level.

UPT ranked last among these campuses for associate professors’ average salaries ($46,900) and 2nd for assistant professors ($40,900). Titusville employs too few full professors (i.e., fewer than three) to be ranked in that category.

“We are not trying to compare our salaries with professors in Oakland,” Ulsh insisted. “But we think it is fair to compare with those at Penn State’s branches,” which have similar missions, recruit from the same areas and are in close proximity to Pitt’s regionals, he said.

According to Academe, salary rankings at Penn State branch campuses are the highest in all three faculty ranks (full professor/$79,000, associate professor/$66,000, and assistant professor/$54,900).

Penn State’s average salaries also are the highest among the three AAU public university branches, including Pitt-Titusville, that confer at least 75 percent of their degrees below the bachelor’s level.

Ulsh said the next step in the dialogue is a Nov. 16 meeting in Oakland of faculty leaders from all five campuses.

-Peter Hart