WEDNESDAY, JULY 21, 2004
UNIVERSITY BUDGET
THE UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN
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Officials raise pay to keep top professors
By Jay Senter
jsenter@kansan.com
Kansan staff writer
University of Kansas evolutionary biology professor John Kelly is good at his job and other universities know it.
Since coming to the University in 1998, Kelly has excelled both as a researcher and a teacher. He has published more than 20 peer-reviewed articles in scholarly journals, and was one of 20 University professors honored for their teaching skills with a Kemper Award last spring.
Such credentials have made Kelly an attractive target to universities throughout the nation. He admitted that administrators from better-paying schools had contacted him about job openings, though he declined to give names.
Below are the average 2003-2004 salary rates for professors, associate professors and assistant professors throughout the Big 12. Salary figures are in thousands of dollars.
Professor Associate Professor Assistant Professor
Colorado 98.4 71.2 61
Iowa St. 92.2 69.2 57.8
Kansas 87.9 61.7 51.2
Kansas St. 76.2 60.8 52.3
Missouri 91.8 64.5 52.3
Nebraska 90.9 65.4 56.2
Oklahoma 85.7 57.5 48.9
Oklahoma St. 76.7 59.2 51.4
Baylor 86.6 67.7 57.2
Texas A&M 95.2 67.9 58.9
Texas Tech 86.5 60.8 52.1
Texas 103.2 64.9 62.3
AVERAGE 89.275 64.23 55.1
Source: The Chronicle of Higher Education
2003-2004 SALARY RATES
"I haven't pursued any of them, because I like the things that KU does well." Kelly said.
But administrators at the University know higher salaries at other schools can lure talented faculty members away. They hope that a 6 percent faculty pay raise funded by the tuition increase will allow the University to retain more of its best professors. The Board of Regents approved the increase for the 2004-2005 school year.
Not all professors will receive a flat raise of 6 percent. It is up to the department chairs to determine how large a raise each faculty member deserves. Guidelines suggest that the highest performing fourth of professors in a department be granted raises above the 6 percent average, while the remaining three-quarters receive raises below the 6 percent average.
Between 2002 and 2003, state budget crunches forced legislators to keep faculty salaries at essentially the same level. Department chairmen received no additional budget for faculty salaries in 2002, and a
modest 2 to 3 percent increase last year.
Evolutionary biology department chairman Craig Martin said the salary stagnation from those two years made the University a tougher sell to many faculty members.
"It's really bad for morale," Martin said. "The faculty members start looking around at other jobs a little bit more, even if they aren't being courted by other schools."
But this year's pay increase should help the University from slipping out of competition with its peer universities for talented faculty. The average salary of a full professor at the University is roughly $87,000, just below the average of $89,275 for all full professors in the Big 12.
Dean of the College of Liberal Arts and Science Kim Wilcox said he hoped the timing of the pay raise, in the midst of a tight state budget, would send a signal to faculty members that the University and Board of Regents are committed to keeping the school competitive.
Both Wilcox and Martin said that the quality of life professors living in Lawrence enjoy could play an important role in keeping faculty at the University.
"If you watch the Tour de France, it's not about how fast you go, it's about when you go fast," Wilcox said. "That's where we are now. Other states are struggling with their budgets, too. For us to move ahead at this time makes the impact even greater."
Kelly said those factors made Lawrence an attractive place to teach despite lower pay.
"Maybe the salaries aren't quite as high, but the cost of living here is great, and Lawrence as a town is strong, particularly if you have a family," Kelly said. "I think the salary initiative is a good one, particularly with regard to faculty retention, but I think KU has a lot of cards to play."
— Edited by Erik Johnson