A caucus that was established by faculty in the spring to increase involvement with University governance and decision-making has grown to 115 members. The caucus formed after several years of frustration with compensation and benefits, which culminated in last May’s determination that this year’s average pay raises will not keep up with the rate of inflation.
“We would like our salaries to be in the top third of the comparison group, but we’re not there,” said Associate Professor of Chemistry David Westmoreland. “Many of the faculty aren’t so concerned with actual salary amount, but they get frustrated with having the administration agree to the [top third] target, and then being told at the end of the year that we didn’t make it.”
Salaries were raised by an average of 3.5 percent this year, with some members of the faculty receiving a higher percentage raise and some less, depending on title and merit. Many members of the faculty are upset because the average pay increase is less than the rate of inflation.
“On average, after inflation, the faculty got a one percent pay cut last year,” said Chair of the Compensation and Benefits committee and Associate Professor of Molecular Biology & Biochemistry Mike McAlear, citing an inflation rate of 4.6 percent in the Northeast.
“I honestly think it’s best for the institution to have a fairly paid faculty,” he said.
“Our retirement plan compares poorly, as do our salaries. What does this do for moral if the longer I’m here, the less I make in real dollars? That’s a big problem. If you’re going to run an institution, do you want your professors happy?”
This caucus, which will meet periodically every semester, hopes to improve faculty compensation and benefits and invite members of the American Association of University Professors (AAUP) to campus to talk about the possibility of reinstating a Wesleyan chapter.
“It’s very important for faculty to meet and talk about things that concern us without the administration present,” Westmoreland said. “The dynamic is different when administrators are present.”
Westmoreland is joined on the caucus steering committee by Associate Professor of Physics Brian Stewart, Associate Professor of MB&B Manju Hingorani, Professor of History and American Studies Patricia Hill, and Professor of Sociology Alex Dupuy.
McAlear was elected by the faculty to chair the Compensation and Benefits committee, which relays faculty concerns with issues pertaining to pensions, health insurance, retirement, and salaries to the administration. He said that, in some cases, the committee has been used to sell the message to the rest of the faculty that they were consulted.
“We talk to them [the Compensation and Benefits committee] about the entire package to try to make sure that whatever gets done, the faculty has an input,” said Vice President for Finance and Administration John Meerts. “We aim to pay our faculty a competitive salary, but the budget reality of the day ultimately determines what is possible [and] the ultimate decision maker on this is the Board of Trustees.”
Meerts explained that each year, a 10-year budget projection is created, including numbers such as the projection of endowment spending, building expenditures, and faculty salaries.
“We’re looking at improving that [faculty salaries] number in the long run,” Meerts said.
“A lot of priorities need to be balanced, but that does not mean that we are not going to address the [faculty salary] issue…We pride ourselves on being good academically. We want to make sure we stay there.”
2006-2007 salary increases for Wesleyan’s faculty, artists-in-residence, and professional librarians were announced in an April 28 letter to the faculty from then-Vice President for Academic Affairs and Provost Judith Brown.
“I realize that this is a small improvement, but given the continuing constraints on the University’s budget, it took considerable effort to add these funds to the salary pool for faculty and librarians,” Brown wrote in the letter.
Many members of the faculty were unsatisfied with the reasoning.
“There’s enough money here,” McAlear said. “We just came off the biggest campaign in Wesleyan history. We’re spending hundreds of millions of dollars.”
In the May 9 issue of the Argus, Brown stated that setting a budget requires making difficult choices.
“For example, financial aid for students is by far the largest single expenditure in our operating budget,” she said. “Do we cut financial aid or raise tuition in order to increase faculty salaries? Most Wesleyan faculty ranks in the top half of their peers among the 16 institutions in our comparison set.”
“That’s not a solid argument,” McAlear said of Brown’s quote. “It’s easy to try to put it in these terms and play the students and faculty off one another, but what was really spent on the core academic mission? The amount of money we’re talking is such a small percentage of the annual budget.”
McAlear had some suggestions for finding the money necessary to put the University’s faculty in the top third of its 16 peer institutions in terms of compensation and benefits.
McAlear argues that a one percent raise (that is, above inflation) on average across the faculty would amount to less than $300,000.
“What if the new campus center was one percent smaller?” McAlear said. “Would it make a difference to the students? That’s probably about one million dollars…We can still have a University with a smaller campus center, but we can’t have a University without professors.”
Meerts said that new buildings are part of the University’s commitment to attracting the best students.
“We are examining the University’s operating budget, looking for ways to fund a higher rate of increase in faculty salaries for the coming year,” he said.
According to the Chronicle of Higher Education’s AAUP Faculty Salary Survey, the average salary for an assistant professor at Wesleyan during the 2005-2006 fiscal year was $64,300, eighth best in a comparison group of 15 colleges and universities, down from sixth the previous year. Associate professors were paid an average of $76,100, 11th and down from 10th the previous year, and full-time professors were paid an average of $115,400, eighth and down from sixth the previous year.
“Part of the issue with the rankings is that they are retrospective,” said Associate Vice President for Finance Nathan Peters. “We can’t call Amherst and say, ‘What are you doing?’”
Wesleyan is in a salary comparison group with Amherst, Brandeis, Brown, Carleton, Dartmouth, Mt. Holyoke, Oberlin, Pomona, Smith, Swarthmore, Trinity, Tufts, Wellesley, and Williams.
Information comparing average salaries for the 2006-2007 fiscal year is not yet available. Peters explained that this comparison data will not be available until January or February, at which point it will already be more than six months old.
Westmoreland hopes that the Faculty Caucus will help shape the budget for the 2007-2008 year.
“Usually it [salaries for the following year] only comes up in May, and everyone gets annoyed for about a month and then goes away for the summer,” Westmoreland said.
Westmoreland cited this as another reason for the formation of the caucus, noting that there will be a Board of Trustees meeting in late September at which financial issues will likely be discussed, and a faculty meeting on Oct. 3 at which compensation and benefits will be discussed. The Faculty Caucus will meet on Sept. 28.
“While some of these things may not affect students, we have common cause in our ultimate goals,” Westmoreland said. “It’s about priorities and how they want to allocate the budget.”
McAlear pointed out the disparity between faculty compensation and benefits, and those of President Douglas Bennet, noting that of the 15 comparison schools, only the president of Brown has a higher salary.
According to the 990 form for the fiscal year from July 1, 2004 to June 30, 2005, Bennet made $478,744 in compensation (salary and bonuses) and benefits (retirement, health insurance, dental, etc.), up from $319,226 in 2000-2001, but down from $488,230 in 2003-2004.
The highest paid professors were Chair and Professor of Film Studies Jeanine Basinger and Professor of Chemistry David Beveridge. Basinger made $235,697 in compensation and benefits during 2004-2005, up from $225,763 in 2003-2004, while Beveridge made $210,788 in 2004-2005, up from $208,920 in 2003-2004.
William Chace, former president of Wesleyan and Emory University and Bennet’s immediate predecessor, commented on faculty and presidential salaries in a Sept. 5 article in the New York Times entitled, “A Little Learning Is an Expensive Thing.”
“As for the way Laudable [a hypothetical university] spends its money, I can assure you that your professors aren’t overpaid,” Chace wrote. “But I am. I take home more money at Laudable than anyone else (save some of the clinical physicians over at our hospital and several coaches). My pay is about five times greater than an average faculty member’s. That’s because I’m thought of as the chief executive of the university and chief executives get paid a lot in America. But I know I’m not really a chief executive because I don’t hold that kind of executive power. The professors here are Laudable’s most important asset, and they, not I, are the ones who run the show (just ask Larry Summers). Laudable could save some money by paying me less.”
“[Chace] obviously speaks for himself,” Meerts said of the article. “His views do not reflect Wesleyan’s views on some of these matters, and on others our views may coincide…Wesleyan aims to pay competitive salaries to all administrators.”
Meerts stressed that administrators, such as Bennet, and professors, such as Beveridge and Basinger, who have been at Wesleyan for many years, make more money than those who are relatively new to the University.
“Right now we’re looking for a new president,” Meerts said. “If you want to get the best out there, you have to pay the prevailing wage.”
With Bennet set to retire in May, members of the faculty will also keep a close eye on emerging presidential hopefuls.
“We’re very interested in the presidential search,” Westmoreland said. “It’s a great opportunity to help shape the direction the University goes for the next few years.”
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