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| Lars
Helgeson is an associate professor in the
Department of Teaching & Learning |
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The
gap between UND and national faculty salary averages
has been reduced because UND made it a strategic priority
and, in part, because of serious funding cuts in many
states.
Although individual raises varied, average pay
increases for faculty over the past four years through
2003-04 have been 4.8, 7.1, 6.2, and 5 percent. For
the 2004-2005 year, faculty received a 5.6 percent increase
on average.
The improvement was possible because of the “flexibility
with accountability” compact entered into by the
Legislature, the Executive Branch, and the State Board
of Higher Education — an initiative that is receiving
national attention for the results it is producing in
the entire North Dakota University System (see Page
4 for the NDUS Web site address and more information
about the North Dakota Roundtable).
The result: At the assistant professor level —
the rank at which new faculty most often enter —
UND now lags behind the nation by just less than 12
percent, compared to 27 percent in 1999-2000, according
to the latest figures compiled by the American Association
of University Professors, regarded as the definitive
source for comparative data. At the associate professor
rank, the variance is 15 percent. At the instructor
rank, held mostly by temporary faculty, UND is ahead
of the national average by 13 percent.
Despite the improvement, full professors —
the most experienced and accomplished of the 650-plus
faculty in UND’s brainpower pool — continue
to lag behind their peers nationally by 38 percent,
compared to 49 percent four years ago.
When compared to the peer universities selected
by the State Board of Higher Education as UND’s
benchmark (see the table at right), UND’s professors
rank last.
Investing in faculty is not an inexpensive proposition,
especially in a state that still trails the nation despite
better-than-average growth in personal income. On average,
a UND full professor earns $68,620 per year, compared
to the $94,606 earned by those holding the same rank
at similar universities.
| Salaries of
full professors |
 |
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| Although
progress has been made in making faculty salaries
more competitive, UND still trials the nine
other schools in its peer group of similar
institutions designed by the Stated Board
of Higher Education. |
|
That
salary may seem high to some, says President Charles
Kupchella. But the bottom line, he points out, is that
UND operates in a national market for faculty and must
be competitive if students are to have top-notch professors
in their classrooms and if UND is to contribute fully
to helping the state meet its challenges.
Faculty increases have been higher than those
for staff because faculty salaries over the years have
been much further behind their counterparts.
The new dollars going into the effort came from
several sources, including tuition increases, revenue
from higher-than-projected enrollment, internal reallocation
of funds, increased state appropriations in the 2001-2003
biennium, and new dollars resulting from UND’s
success in attracting grants and in forging partnerships
with third parties.
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