University Times

Faculty salaries at Pitt’s regional campuses remain near the bottom of average salary rankings of peer branch campuses at Association of American Universities (AAU) public institutions.

Pitt’s Bradford, Greensburg and Johnstown regionals were grouped within 18 IIB institutions, that is, those that focus primarily on baccalaureate education. The Titusville campus was grouped with two other Category III institutions that confer at least 75 percent of their degrees below the bachelor’s level.

Pitt’s administration contends that comparing Pittsburgh campus faculty salaries with salaries at other AAU publics is appropriate because those institutions share basic missions, aspirations, programming and competitiveness. However, comparing Pitt’s regional campus salaries with their AAU public IIB and Category III counterparts is not appropriate, the administration maintains, partly because the relatively small number of faculty does not generate a meaningful comparison.

The salary rankings are for fiscal year 2004-05, which ended last June 30, and are based on data published in the March/April issue of Academe, the journal of the American Association of University Professors. The Pitt data, compiled by the University’s Office of Institutional Research, were presented to the University Senate budget policies committee (BPC) last week at the committee’s request.

• Bradford campus faculty ranked 17th for average salaries of full professors (Bradford average: $64,800), 12th for associate professors ($56,000) and 12th for assistant professors ($47,100).

• The Greensburg campus ranked 15th for average salaries of full professors ($67,800), 15th for associate professors ($55,000) and 16th for assistant professors ($44,800).

• Average salaries for faculty at the Johnstown campus ranked 18th for full professors ($64,100), 13th for associate professors ($56,000) and 14th for assistant professors ($45,200).

• Titusville faculty salaries ranked last among the three AAU Category III institutions.

Associate professors at Titusville earned $48,500 on average and assistant professors averaged $43,300. The Titusville campus employs too few full professors (fewer than three) to be ranked in that category.

Faculty at Penn State branch campuses continue to earn the highest salaries among the IIB public AAU institutions. Full professors at Penn State’s IIB branch campuses earned an average salary of $85,600, while associate professors were paid $68,700 and assistant professors were paid $57,200.

BPC members discussed the appropriateness of benchmarking faculty salaries at Pitt’s three regionals against the 15 other AAU IIB schools.

“Although the flagships of various universities are comparable [to the Pittsburgh campus], their branch campuses have different mission statements,” said BPC chair Stephen Carr at the May 20 meeting. “There is still the ongoing issue of appropriate peer groups for the branch campuses.”

BPC member Phil Wion said that Pitt’s administration has maintained that the public AAU IIB group comparison is not an appropriate measuring stick. “One of the reasons why the central administration has not been happy with this peer group is that Pitt shows up near the bottom consistently. And faculty out there say, ‘See, we’re not being paid what we ought to be paid.’ The central administration says, ‘That’s because you are comparing yourself with the wrong group.’”

Carr noted that the Provost’s office and the presidents of UPB, UPG and UPJ recently have agreed on a salary comparison list consisting of all 270 IIB institutions in three large geographic areas of the United States: Middle Atlantic, East North Central and South Atlantic.

Pitt officials argue that this larger group serves the general purpose of supplying a broad benchmark for comparing relative progress over time. (See April 28 University Times.)

“There’s been discussion, and it needs to be decided at the branch campus level whether that list is appropriate,” Carr said. “As a committee, we need to express our hope that the branch campus faculty will work out with their administrations an appropriate peer group that could be included in next year’s report.”

Wion added, “This committee has argued that the list [of 270] ought to be narrowed down, looking for some appropriateness, instead of just being a IIB in those three geographical areas. As Steve said, now it’s up to faculty senates at the regionals to negotiate.”

Carr said, “I think this committee can stand behind that: that the substance of the negotiations seems to be best handled at the branch campuses. It just doesn’t look that good that year after year the branch campuses are at the bottom” in the AAU comparison, he said.

“But at the same time we want these reports to correspond as much as possible to actual policy practices. What determines salary? What is an appropriate group of institutions? How can people reasonably say: ‘If we have to compete for the best faculty, you need to increase the rate of compensation’?

“Myself, I don’t think that the [270] institutions is a useful tool to get us information that doesn’t have a way of relating to policy,” Carr said.

—Mary Ann Thomas and Peter Hart