Utah's public colleges are falling behind in faculty pay, making it harder for some to retain professors and recruit new talent.
While higher education institutions nationally are struggling to keep salaries in pace with inflation, some Utah institutions including Salt Lake Community College and Utah State University are coming up far short, according to a report Monday by the American Association of University Professors.
Professors at Salt Lake Community College earned an average of $50,100 for the 2005-2006 academic year, while the average at public two-year colleges nationally came in approximately $66,000. The disparity is similar at USU, where professors were paid an average of $76,600, while the national average at public doctoral institutions is $101,600.
Utah Valley State College's average professorial salary of $60,000 also paled next to the national average of $73,400 at public baccalaureate colleges. The privately owned Brigham Young University did not participate in the study.
The University of California at Los Angeles, New Jersey Institute of Technology and The University of California at Berkeley topped the list of highest-paid professors at public universities, with average faculty pay of about $128,000. Rockefeller University was the highest of both private and public universities, with an average faculty salary of $172,800. The study did not include salaries of medical professors.
Lower salaries at USU have meant losing top faculty to universities that offer bigger paychecks, said Raymond Coward, executive vice president and provost. The university reported losing 157 faculty over a four-year period, including a dean and vice president who went out of state for higher salaries.
"We must address this issue," Coward said. "If we can't retain the world-class scientists that we have here at Utah State, we are going to be disadvantaged. If we don't pay attention to it, we are going to start losing people in droves."
Joy Tlou, director of public relations for Salt Lake Community College, said the college hasn't seen quite the same struggle to retain professors as USU. The college's hefty benefits plan may be the one factor helping convince instructors to stay, he said.
"The college understands that our salaries for faculty and staff are some of the lowest in the country," Tlou said. "At the same time, we're one of the few places that carries such a comprehensive compensation package."
Faculty pay scales are suffering around the nation as well, growing only about 3.1 percent this year and falling behind the 3.5 percent inflation rate. That marks the second year in a row where professors' pay didn't keep up, the national report said.
Growth rates at other Utah institutions were slightly lower than national averages, with the University of Utah posting an overall 2.5 percent salary increase for the 2005-2006 academic year. At $97,900, the university's average salaries for professors were competitive with a national $101,600 average for public doctoral universities.
But Paul Brinkman, the university's associate vice president of budgeting, said that's simply not enough to compete for qualified professors.
Brinkman said the university is competing with the upper echelon of doctoral institutions that have advanced research programs. When compared with those research-heavy schools, Brinkman said, the university's professorial salaries are falling behind.
"We don't want our best people to be actively looking," Brinkman said. "If they are, we're going to lose them. Sometimes we'll scramble around and try and find other resources to keep them here, but sometimes we can't."
The competition for professors is particularly fierce in fields like accounting and finance, because the university has to vie for professors not only with other colleges, but also with Wall Street, he added.
Education leaders in Utah have watched the state's lagging faculty salaries for some time, asking the Legislature earlier this year to come up with $5 million for retention funds for key faculty and staff. While that request didn't make the budget, universities did get a 3.5 percent salary increase for all employees.
But Utah colleges still have a long way to go. According to estimates by the Utah System of Higher Education, Utah institutions have about a $23 million gap between their professors' pay and what other state systems are offering.
At the University of Utah, 947 out of 2,573 state-funded faculty members earn below 90 percent of the national average, an average shortfall of about $9,000 per employee. In all, the university would need about $8.6 million to bring its salaries in line with national averages, according to the state higher education system.
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