Members of faculty want competitive salaries

After years of complaints that University faculty members are under-compensated and recruited away by other schools offering higher salaries, the administration is planning for a major allocation of funding towards faculty salaries. Some faculty, however, remain skeptical as to whether the planned increase will impact the University's competitiveness.

As faculty salaries at rival institutions have risen dramatically in the past five years, statistics indicate that Tufts has struggled to keep up. In the last year, Tufts-peer schools saw the largest single-year jump in inflation-adjusted salaries since the mid-1980s.

Faculty salaries at Tufts have now fallen below schools like Boston College, Emory, and University of Michigan. "Our salaries are not commensurate with our stature as a top national university," Urban and Environmental Policy and Planning Professor Sheldon Krimsky, President of Tufts American Association of University Professors (AAUP) Chapter said. "And they're not doing much about it."

In 2001-2002, the average salaries for tenured, associate, and assistant professors were $96,000, $72,000, and $56,000, respectively. After reaching the 80th percentile of Category I schools in 1990-1991, assistant professor salaries have fallen to the 70th percentile and professor salaries have fallen to the 73rd percentile.

Despite the University's ambition to place in the 80th percentile of Category I institutions, a self-study reports that diminished salary increases and increased competition for faculty caused "an erosion" toward the goal of attaining the 80th percentile of Category I institutions in faculty salaries.

Faculty members argue that this disparity has led Tufts to lose some of its best teachers. According to Assistant Philosophy Professor Lionel McPherson, "Tufts is at a serious disadvantage in attracting top-notch faculty, given the relative low median salaries."

Some disagree that salaries are the primary draw for professors at Tufts, and that other factors are at play. "There are many other, non-financial, advantages to being part of the Tufts community," Associate Biology Professor Sara Lewis said.

Salary is not the deciding issue, according to Executive Administrative Dean of Finances Wayne Bouchard. "Tufts is a fabulous place to teach and do research," Bouchard said. "I believe our faculty overall understand that we have and will continue to do all we can, albeit within a constrained budget, to find additional resources to keep faculty compensation competitive."

Even so, over the past decade the University has struggled to compete for faculty. "For several years, we were 'ripe for the picking' and a number of our best faculty did leave," Political Science Department Chair James Glaser said.

"A low salary structure creates an incentive for faculty to look elsewhere," he said. "If we're not competitive, we will lose out on the best job candidates _ and we have _ and our faculty will be raided by other universities."

Ballou officials, however, insist that the new administration is more sensitive to this issue than ever before. "Faculty compensation is one of our highest priorities," Dean of Academic Affairs for Arts and Sciences Kevin Dunn said. "The first priority is financial aid, and I'd say the second is faculty compensation."

A dramatic overhaul of the faculty budget is now underway. "Since fiscal year 2002, Arts, Sciences and Engineering [AS&E] has allocated a pool of funds specifically for the purpose of maintaining our ability to attract and retain top faculty," Bouchard said. In 2000 and 2001, $150,000 was allocated towards salary increases for faculty. This fiscal year, salary increases will total $500,000. The faculty budget is currently 60 percent of total AS&E expenditures.

But faculty members criticize how this money is being used to retain faculty. "There is a de facto policy of not significantly raising salaries except when a professor has received a better offer elsewhere _ and perhaps even not then," McPherson said. "This policy basically encourages top faculty to look elsewhere."

The University denies that it employs such a negotiating policy. "It is not the policy of this administration to work like that," Dunn said. "The majority of raises went to faculty who did not receive offers elsewhere."

Within the new administration, salary adjustments have been doubled with the Tufts Tomorrow Campaign raising $55 million in endowed funds to support faculty, according to Director of Development Brian Lee.

Tufts has 34 endowed professorships and six term professorships. "These commitments are enabling Tufts to retain its most outstanding faculty members, or to attract distinguished scholars, by recognizing excellence, providing status and income commensurate with high achievement," Lee said.

But faculty members argue that the shrinking increases in compensation will continue unabated by these efforts. Krimsky said that the administration has not been willing to narrow the disparity. "While they say that it is a top priority, there has been no such effort put forth, and no new initiative of any impact," he said. "If the administration does not try to ameliorate we will lose face, or not be competitive when we hire."

Professors begin to feel more attracted by the highest paying universities around Boston because of the high cost-of-living in the Boston area, according to McPherson.

For Tufts to be as competitive as it would like, the school needs a systematic five year plan, funded by $2 million annually to bring Tufts into the 80th percentile of Category I schools, according to Krimsky. "Now is a good time to do these raises," he said.

The current economy presents a unique opportunity for Tufts to "close the gap." While other universities _ including Dartmouth College and Duke University _ reel from economic cuts, Tufts stands to gain as a result of its limited market exposure.

According to the AAUP data, salaries are not expected to rise at last year's rate because administrators believe that inflation will be lower than last year.

The AAUP also reports that "most institutional budgets for 2001-02 were set by June 2001, before the recession really hit state and local tax revenues. Budgets for 2002-03, however, are being set right after a recession and at a time when most states and localities have seen constant or even declining tax revenues."

Krimsky and the Committee on Budget and University Priorities are currently looking into changes for benefit and compensation packages.