University Times

The average salaries of Pittsburgh campus faculty members continue to rank in the middle of the pack among the 59 U.S. member institutions of the American Association of Universities (AAU), a group of elite North American research universities.

The rankings are included in a report by Pitt's Office of Institutional Research, based on data published by the American Association of University Professors (AAUP) in the March/April issue of Academe and in the 1994 Association of Research Libraries Salary Survey, published in January 1995.

According to the report, the average salary of a full professor at the Pittsburgh campus ($76,300) was 30th out of 59 AAU schools for that rank during the 1994-95 academic year. The year before, Pitt ranked 29th out of 57. Since then, two schools have joined the AAU — Emory University and the University of California at Santa Barbara.

The average salary of a Pittsburgh associate professor ($53,400) ranks 28th out of 59. Last year, Pitt ranked 26th out of 57 in that category.

For assistant professors, Pitt ranks 34th, with the average Pittsburgh campus assistant prof earning $44,000. Last year, Pitt ranked 34th out of 57.

Average salaries of Pittsburgh campus librarians ($37,200) slipped to 46th out of the 53 AAU schools that belong to the Association of Research Libraries (ARL). Last year, Pitt ranked 40th out of 51.

Average faculty salaries this year at Pitt's Bradford, Greensburg and Johnstown campuses ranked near the top for full professors, near the bottom for assistant professors and in between for associate professors, compared with 14 other AAU regional and branch campuses that emphasize baccalaureate-level education.

Pitt's Titusville campus ranked last in faculty salaries in all three professorial ranks compared with three other AAU campuses that confer at least 75 percent of their degrees below the bachelor's level.

In its report, called "Average Salaries of Faculty and Librarians, A Peer Group Analysis 1994-95" (Pitt Information Document 199), the Office of Institutional Research pointed out several problems with the data used in its analysis: * 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 (of which Pittsburgh is one of the best examples) can be seriously represented," Pitt's report states. "The ratio one uses to convert 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. Schools with proportionately more senior and tenured professors tend to pay higher average salaries.

* The data don't account for the discipline areas of faculty. Institutions that concentrate on technical fields such as engineering and high-demand fields such as business tend to pay higher salaries than predominately 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.

"As a result, the majority of AAU institutions ranked highly are private institutions. If one were to revise this analysis to include only public AAU institutions, the position of Pittsburgh would change. Out of 30 institutions, the University would rank seventh in average salary for professors; seventh for associate professors; and 12th for assistant professors. The University would rank 26th out of 29 institutions in librarians' average salary."

— Bruce Steele