UI and UNI see faculty salaries slide

The University of Iowa and the University of Northern Iowa lost ground this year in average faculty salaries, with budget cuts and pay freezes likely contributing factors.

The UI dropped one spot among Big Ten Conference universities and UNI slid two spots in the Missouri Valley Conference for average faculty pay, according to the 2009-10 salary report by the American Association of University Professors, released today.

Iowa State University remained in sixth place in the Big 12 Conference for the third straight year, with average pay of $84,800 for all faculty ranks - professor, associate professor, assistant professor and instructor. The UI's average of $94,100 for all ranks was sixth among the 11 Big Ten schools, while UNI's pay of $67,800 was sixth among the 10 Missouri Valley schools, down from fourth last year.

“It's a very big concern,” said Hans Isakson, economics professor and president of UNI's United Faculty bargaining unit. “What happens is you find it more difficult to recruit new faculty and more difficult to retain faculty. It's hard to keep people around if our salaries are low.”

UNI faculty saw no salary increases this year, part of a two-year bargaining agreement, and a midyear budget cut actually meant temporary pay cuts at UNI and ISU.

Many faculty also are teaching more students and more classes because of budget cuts, said Susan Wurtz, chairwoman of the UNI Faculty Senate.

UI officials made a push to boost faculty salaries in recent years and saw the rankings among peer schools rise as a result. Even one year without salary increases, like this year, can stall momentum if other states fund pay raises, UI Provost Wallace Loh said.

“All it takes is for one school to jump ahead of you, and you'll start slipping,” Loh said. “It takes a lot of time and effort to rise from the bottom to the middle, but you can fall very fast.”

At the UI, leaders are trying to balance investing money to hire more faculty to replace lost positions with protecting competitive pay, so as not to lose the gains that have been made, Loh said.

“It's a trade-off, walking that fine balance,” he said.

In comparisons with peers, UI officials actually average only the top three faculty ranks and leave out the instructor rank. Using that formula, the UI's average this year is $97,400, eighth among its chosen peer group of 11 similar public universities.

The averages, however, are imperfect gross measures that can hide a lot of factors that might affect salaries, Loh said, such as the retirement of older faculty and their replacement with younger, lower paid faculty.

Average salaries reported in this year's AAUP survey for other area schools include: Coe College, $61,900; Cornell College, $64,500; Luther College, $66,400; Wartburg College, $59,000; and Kirkwood Community College, $54,300. Drake University in Des Moines, also in the Missouri Valley Conference with UNI, topped that group this year with an average salary of $75,500.