True pay gap wider than Sherman suggests

I read with interest Norman Sherman’s column, “When is a Coach’s Pay Too Much?” Without wading into the issue of Kirk Ferentz’s earnings, I want to correct an error in the column. Mr. Sherman criticizes the discrepancy between professors’ pay and Ferentz’s pay — based on an overestimation of faculty salaries. This gives readers a false sense of faculty earnings (which are public record).

Mr. Sherman writes that “A tenured professor of history or chemistry or art may make close to $300,000 a year.”

In fact, the highest-paid full professor in the History Department at The University of Iowa has a base salary of not quite $130,000. Several associate professors who have been tenured for several years (following a six-year probationary period) earn barely $80,000. The true gap between faculty salaries and Coach Ferentz’s pay is even greater than Mr. Sherman’s column suggests.

Elizabeth Heineman

Iowa City