[Vision2020] Idaho Faculty Salaries Continue to Lag

[Nicholas Gier]

*IDAHO FACULTY SALARIES CONTINUE TO LAG*

By Nick Gier

The faculty union has UI salary figures that go back to 1982, so it is
significant to note the growing inequity between faculty and
administration, and among administrators themselves. In 1982 UI professors
were only 17 percent behind the national average for Ph.D.-granting
institutions, but that has now grown to 26 percent. Assistant and associate
professors now lag 17 and 16 percent respectively. Among Mountain West
schools the UI stands at -18/-12/-14 in the three professorial ranks.

In 1982 UI President Richard Gibb was only 15 percent ahead of his fellow
administrators, but President Duane Nellis’ salary has jumped 45 percent
ahead of his. Over 31 years UI administrative salaries have risen 293
percent versus 213 percent for full professors.  The CPI is 231.

President Nellis is now only 15 percent behind his public institution
peers, while his full professors lag 26 percent. Adjusted for inflation,
the nation’s higher education executive salaries rose 35 percent from
1995-2006, while faculty pay went up only five percent.

When UI President Duane Nellis demanded $40,000 more than his predecessor,
the State Board of Education decided to equalize executive pay at the three
universities at $342,000. At Idaho’s three 2-year colleges, which have
independent boards,  presidential pay ranges from $160,000 at North Idaho
College, $175,000 at College of Western Idaho, and $204,294 at College of
Southern Idaho.

For this past year Idaho’s K-12 union teachers averaged $49,734 per year,
while CWI and CSI faculty made only $43,545 and $48,927 respectively.  For
2-year colleges with professorial rank, CSI is 26 percent behind its
national peers, while its assistants and associates lag 17 and 19 percent
respectively.

At an average of $53,481 North Idaho College faculty are 15 percent behind
national 2-year schools without professorial rank. Primarily because of
their salary step system, their instructors still earn $9,936 more than
their CWI colleagues and $4,254 more than professors at CSI.

A salary step system is at the center of all collective bargaining
agreements.  Better salaries and grievance procedures come with union
contracts, and my organization has tried to introduce a higher education
collective bargaining bill in the Idaho Legislature, not to no avail.

Incredibly enough, the Lewis Clark State College faculty average for all
ranks was only $49,400, just behind their K-12 colleagues, and their full
professors were 1.3 percent behind their peers at College of Southern
Idaho. LCSC full professors make $56,900 per year, but their national peers
in public baccalaureate institutions make $86,400—34 percent ahead.  LCSC
assistant and associate professors are 23 and 31 percent behind
respectively.

Even though BSU does grant some doctoral degrees, it still does not
qualify, according to the American Association of University Professors
(AAUP), as a Category I Ph.D.-granting university.  In our previous surveys
we have erred in including BSU with UI and ISU as Category I.

Nationally, at the Category IIA level, BSU full professors are 9 percent
behind, while assistants and associates both lag 7 percent. Among Mountain
West peer schools BSU is actually a bit ahead in each rank: +1.5, +2.4, and
+3.2 percent respectively.

For two years running, the ISU administration has declined to send salary
data to the AAUP.  After President Arthur Vailas disbanded a duly elected
faculty senate, the AAUP voted to place ISU on its sanction list in June,
2011.  It now has the dubious distinction of being one of four institutions
in the U.S. that are on this black list.

In Montana, where all the campuses are unionized, state appropriations for
higher education there have declined only 5.9 percent since 2008, but Idaho
has experienced a drop of 20 percent.

We all need to lobby our legislators to restore the $46.8 million that our
colleges and universities have lost since the beginning of the Great
Recession.

Nick Gier is President of the Higher Education Council of the Idaho
Federation of Teachers. Salary tables can be viewed at
www.idaho-aft.org/survey13.pdf.  Salaries by UI department are at
www.idaho-aft.org/UI FY13.pdf.**

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