Iowa State has dropped to last place in average faculty pay compared to its Peer 11 land-grant universities.

With an average annual faculty salary of $72,100, the university has dropped from ninth to 11th place, according to the annual report of salaries presented at the October Board of Regents meeting. This is $14,100 less than No. 1 ranking University of California-Davis.

Iowa State ranks in the middle of the three state universities in Iowa. The University of Iowa’s average pay is $77,200 and the University of Northern Iowa averages $60,400.

“Clearly, the university is concerned about faculty salary,” said Warren Madden, ISU vice president for business and finance. “We have slipped down to the bottom in the universities that we compete with.”

Not only has Iowa State lost competitiveness with salaries, but it has lost many faculty members due to budget cuts.

“Some 75 percent of our expenditure at the university goes towards faculty salaries,” said Provost Rollin Richmond. “It will be impossible to make the cuts we will be asked to make in 2003 without cutting faculty.”

Even with the possible 18.5-percent increase in tuition next year, Richmond said, the university will not have enough to cover the expected 6- to 8-percent cut of state support.

Iowa State also stumbled in salary increases, leaving the university even further behind its competition.

“Last year, we had salary increases of 3.8 percent – and a lot of states were able to do better than that,” Richmond said.

Madden said one reason Iowa State is ranked the lowest in its peer group is because of the different focuses of each competing university.

“The disciplines that each university has and the mix of faculty members that represent seniority and experience makes a difference in the salaries,” he said.

Support the university receives from students, families and the state also plays a role in the faculty salaries.

“If you rank the resources the university gets from student tuition and state subsidies, we are among the lowest,” Richmond said.

He said states such as North Carolina have low tuition and high state subsidies, while states such as Michigan ask students and families to pay for tuition, which helps maintain competitive faculty salaries.

“For quite awhile Iowa has been doing neither,” Richmond said. “I believe that it is a general sense of legislature and the people, that government should be smaller and taxes should be cut. Unfortunately, we are seeing the consequences of that.”

Max Wortman, faculty senate president-elect, said one of the consequences Iowa State is facing due to low faculty pay is low numbers of tenured faculty.

“Faculty have been concerned about the pay for some time,” said Wortman, distinguished professor of management. “For the last 15 years, we have been losing tenure-track faculty and we haven’t gone up in temp. faculty.”

While Iowa State continues to lose faculty, Wortman said, the University of Iowa and the University of Northern Iowa have increased their tenure-track positions over the last 15 years, leaving Iowa State at a competitive disadvantage.

“We lost several major faculty members this summer,” he said. “They are leaving for better career opportunities and better pay.”

Although Iowa State is facing a large financial crunch, several solutions have been suggested.

President Gregory Geoffroy has proposed a fund-raising plan called “Investing in People” to improve private funding resources, endowed shares and faculty competitiveness.

“What Geoffroy has done is to include in the budget a substantial number of resources for retention and recruiting of faculty and strengthening research mission of the university,” Richmond said. “He is making a decision to use resources in a way to address faculty salary issues.”

Despite the cuts, the university is working hard to keep building its strong points, he said.

“This is an old, well-established institution,” Richmond said. “We have good faculty members, many loyal, and we happen to be placed in a positive cordial environment for people who appreciate families. What the president is trying to do is keep those areas strong, so when the business cycle improves – which it will – we have the substrate ready to go and can reinvest in the university being as strong as it was before.”

But many professors believe that, in order to have a strong university, strong faculty must be present.

“If you can’t get the best faculty, you won’t attract the best students,” Wortman said. “I think one of the things we picked up is a new cry that the core of the excellent university is the faculty. When you start to cut the core you don’t have as good of a university.”