Iowa State lost 48 faculty members last year – a 46 percent increase from the number of faculty members that left in 2002.

According to an Associated Press article, Iowa State pays its faculty the lowest average salary compared to its peer universities.

“Retention is an issue across the U.S.,” said Robert Brown, professor of the Center for Sustainable Environmental Technology. “To me, it suggests that we are not training enough future faculty to fill the high-demand areas of engineering and science.”

Brown is no stranger to the faculty retention issue. He was recently offered a higher paying position at another university.

“I decided to stay because ISU agreed to redouble its efforts to make ISU a leader in biorenewables,” Brown said.

Instead of leaving Iowa State, however, Brown asked for a larger operating budget and a better workspace.

When Brown made the choice to stay he received a 31 percent salary increase, putting him at a yearly salary of $175,490.

ISU President Gregory Geoffroy has prioritized faculty pay issues and hopes to increase Iowa State’s salary ranking.

“The most important strategy is to get appropriations from the state to allow us to make those salary enhancements,” Geoffroy said. “That was part of the budget request that we made this year, and we’ll be making similar requests in future years.”

The issue, Geoffroy stressed, is at heart “a reflection of all the budget cuts that we endured over the last five to six years.”

Gregory Palermo, professor of architecture and president of the faculty senate, said there are two main underlying issues that Iowa State should look at in dealing with this problem.

He said the nature of the fields in which the faculty are leaving and how the average faculty salary compares with that of other universities, should be examined.

“Institutions are out looking for key people,” Palermo said. “We have a tremendously well-respected faculty in many disciplines. We’re internationally known.”

This wealth of talent and creativity, Palermo said, makes many ISU faculty members desirable to other institutions.

Palermo attended the springtime faculty conference this past weekend, where the faculty retention issue was addressed by Provost Betsy Hoffman.

Hoffman, Palermo said, gave a presentation suggesting the need for an institutional excellence fund.

“She would like to formalize some of these things in a more visible, or positive, way,” Palermo said.