This article presents the annual report on the economic status of the profession. This year's report covers three main issues--all perennial problems, but with new analysis based on the latest data--in addition to summarizing the current results from the annual American Association of University Professors (AAUP) survey of full-time faculty…

In four decades of teaching college English, the author has watched many good teaching jobs morph into second-class ones. Worse, she has seen the memory and then the expectation of teaching jobs with decent status, security, and salary depart along with principles and collegiality. To help reverse this downward spiral, she contends that what is…

The effects of reliance on part-time faculty in higher education have been much discussed of late. Most observers now agree that the increasing reliance on contingent academic labor has worrisome consequences for both students and faculty. The authors recently attempted to provide needed analysis of what drives the current reliance on part-time…

This article presents the annual report on the economic status of the profession. Although the results of this year's survey of full-time faculty compensation are marginally better than they have been the last two years, 2011-12 represents the continuation of a historic low period for faculty salaries. The overall average salary for full-time…

Do liberal arts colleges act like research universities when they seek to appoint new faculty members? Evidence shows that research universities bid aggressively for talent, using discretionary salary policies to achieve a diverse professoriate, appoint research stars, and fill vacancies in fields where market forces require differential salaries.…

It is clear from the American Association of University Professors (AAUP) Faculty Gender Equities Indicator 2006 report and other studies that female faculty members have not achieved equity with their male colleagues. One indicator of this is that women, even when they hold the same rank as men, are paid less. Institutions frequently argue that…

In this article, the authors provide a description of the academic climate in New Mexico. Like many other places in the world today, New Mexico is trying to find an identity in an environment that the authors label "increasingly privatized, corporatized, and militarized." New Mexico's higher education salaries are lower than those in…

Reviews some of the continuing challenges for the higher education community in achieving salary equity between men and women by examining recent legal cases. Suggests issues that faculty members and administrators might consider when undertaking salary-equity studies. (EV)

Having recently represented their colleagues in discussions with the administration of their institution, Saint Anselm College, about faculty compensation, the authors of this paper decided to compile a guide for other professors at similar institutions--small, private liberal arts colleges--who may be called on to negotiate salary packages…

This article discusses how one small liberal arts school, Wheaton College in Massachusetts, devised a strategic plan to improve faculty salaries by linking improvements in salaries to improvements in college resources. The benefits of the salary plan went beyond improving salaries. First, the plan dictated that faculty salaries be determined at…

The ambiguity concerning the status and role of the academic librarian and its reflection in the salary disparity between librarians and teaching faculty, and the differences of opinion concerning the solution, are discussed. (MSE)

In this paper, the author describes what might happen if a college got rid of its board of trustees and the faculty became voting partners in running the "corporation." What if there was no board of trustees composed mainly of outsiders? What if the president was chosen by and responsible to the faculty? What, in short, if the faculty owned the…

The University of California's "step" system for appointment and advancement of faculty and the salary scale attached to it are outlined, and some criteria and procedures used in making academic personnel decisions are reviewed. (MSE)

Although a casual analysis might suggest that a faculty member cannot afford a two-term sabbatical leave, factors affecting income loss from sabbaticals have changed. These include an increase in the number of two-income households, general increases in salary levels, and substantial revisions in federal tax law. Income loss from sabbaticals,…

Results of the annual national survey of college and university faculty compensation are reported, with some narrative analysis. Data on national averages and individual institutions, trend analyses, rank, institution type, gender, tenure, and total compensation are included. (MSE)