University faculty tend to experience a high level of stress at this point in the semester – with the culmination of classes, there are many deadlines to be met, exams to be written and final grades to be calculated. Now UW faculty have an additional reason to be stressed out: a recent report by the American Association of University Professors (AAUP) found that salaries for UW faculty lag far behind those of their peer institutions.
The report, entitled “Where Are the Priorities? The Annual Report on the Economic Status of the Profession, 2007–08,” examined, in part, salaries of assistant, associate, and full professors at doctoral, comprehensive (i.e., masters) and baccalaureate universities and two-year community colleges. Its findings pointed toward a national trend of university faculty salaries lagging behind inflation nationwide, and UW salaries lagging even further behind.
“Faculty salary levels at the UW System’s comprehensive campuses are a disgrace: they are well behind virtually all institutions of higher learning,” commented Ray Spoto, past president of The Association of UW Professionals (TAUWP, AFT-Wisconsin Local 3535) and UW Platteville professor.
“UW faculty salaries at comprehensive campuses are 20% behind those of our faculty peers at the national level, and far behind some of the southern states like Georgia, North Carolina, and Alabama. Low salaries mean low quality - low quality research, low quality teaching, and ultimately a low quality higher education. The bottom line is that you get what you pay for,” concluded Spoto.
The UW System’s comprehensive campuses are not alone in this trend – all UW institutions, including two-year colleges and doctoral institutions, are well behind the curve in faculty compensation. For example, at the University of Wisconsin – Milwaukee, one of the UW System’s two doctoral institutions, faculty salaries are more in line with those of comprehensive universities across the nation rather than their peer doctoral universities.
"The AAUP data make painfully obvious how far behind the UW system has fallen in comparison to its peer institutions," stated Jim Simmons, UW-Oshkosh Faculty Senate President and TAUWP Chapter President. "These figures show that the faculty at our comprehensive UW campuses are being compensated at the level of the faculty at two-year community colleges nationwide. Given the crisis in recruitment and retention, UW System administrators should ask themselves if dramatically underpaying their faculty is a trend they afford to continue."