EDITORIAL: Fair pay key to becoming prominent university
“One side believes the university has adequate resources and should use these resources to increase the compensation to faculty. The other side believes the important issue is whether faculty compensation is appropriate in relation to comparable universities.”
This statement, made by Provost Gary Shapiro in a letter to staff and faculty and published in Central Michigan Life, outlines what he sees as the main conflict between the university and the Faculty Association in coming to a contract agreement.
If Shapiro or anybody else thinks the compensation faculty are getting is “appropriate in relation to comparable universities,” they have not done adequate research.
As reported by the Chronicle of Higher Education, CMU had 787 full-time faculty for 27,247 enrolled students, 34.6 students per full-time faculty member, in 2009-10. The average salary for a professor was $98,400 and $75,000 for an associate professor.
Western Michigan University, possibly the most comparable public university in the state by size, had 862 full-time faculty for 24,576 enrolled students, which is 28.5 students per faculty member, in the same time period. Professor salary averaged, $100,800 and $75,500 for associate professors.
Professors at WMU are getting slightly more money for a slightly lighter load of students on each faculty member.
While CMU is striving to be a more prominent university, it's unfair to think payments should stay the same for faculty and staff because CMU is anticipating a lack of funding after spending money on general projects.
It is also the reason average annual tuition, as reported by the Chronicle of Higher Education in 2010, was $10,380, a mere $800 less than the average annual tuition of Michigan State University.
If compared to MSU, the university it could be argued we are striving to be, the compensation to CMU professors looks even worse.
Professors at MSU get an average of $125,200 a year and associates get $87,000, respectively $27,100 and $12,000 more than their peers at CMU, according to the Chronicle for Higher Education article.
Yes, MSU is a much larger university by enrollment, but even larger by faculty. In 2009-10, there were 47,071 students enrolled at MSU, but 2,623 full-time faculty, meaning there are only 17.9 students per faculty, compared to 34.6 students per faculty at CMU.
This paints a pretty clear picture — if we want to be like our “big brother,” we need to treat our professors better.
