Despite fears that the national economic recession would resultin professors receiving little or nothing in raises this academicyear, average faculty pay nationwide rose 3 percent in 2002-03,according to the American Association of University Professors. Itwas the sixth consecutive year that salaries have increased.
"The good news was tempered by the fact that the rate ofincrease was smaller than the previous year's rise of 3.8 percentand was the smallest since the 1996-97 academic year," said RonaldG. Ehrenberg, chair of the committee on the Economic Status of theProfession at AAUP and author of the report.
Taking into account the inflation rate of 2.4 percent fromDecember 2001 to December 2002, average faculty salaries at two-and four-year institutions rose 0.6 percent, compared with 2.2percent in the previous academic year, according to the annualreport released Thursday.
At The University of Memphis, average salaries rose an averageof 4.5 percent from fall 2001 to fall 2002.
However, as a result of the 5 percent budget impoundment,imposed by Governor Bredesen on all state-funded higher educationinstitutions, there will not be any likely salary increases in thefall, U of M Media Specialist Curt Guenther said in an interviewearlier this month.
"The war coupled with the recession caused many states to reducetheir spending, and, as a result, the funding for public highereducation is suffering," Ehrenberg said. "Aggregate appropriationsfor higher education in 2002-03 rose by 1.2 percent. This increase,which was the smallest since 1992-93, was only about one-quarter ofthe previous year's increase and lower than the rate ofinflation."
These factors contribute to slight, if any, increases in facultysalaries and large disproportionate increases in tuition, accordingto the report.
Large increases in enrollments in some state colleges anduniversities, coupled with small increases in per-studentgovernment appropriations, led many of these institutions to pushaggressively for tuition increases. As a result, tuition at publictwo- and four-year institutions rose by an average of 7.9 percentand 9.6 percent, respectively.
The U of M, like the institutions surveyed for the report, willincrease tuition in response to economic factors beyond itscontrol. Currently, University officials are in the process ofsubmitting plans to the Tennessee Board of Regents, its governinginstitution, on tuition increases of 8, 11 and 14 percent increasesfor the 2003-04 academic year. The increase will be announced byTBR in June.
These increases, Ehrenberg said, although large in percentageterms, are actually substantially smaller in absolute terms.
"Consequently, administrators at public institutions had, onaverage, fewer resources to increase their faculty members'salaries," he said.
