Collegiate Times

According to the 2006-07 Annual Report on the Economic Status of the Profession, the salaries of university presidents increased by 35 percent, while average faculty salaries increased only by 5 percent. The study tracked the changes over 10 years, beginning in 1995 and was compiled by the American University of University Professors. The results of the study indicate a structural problem in the awarding of salary increases and are encouraging some, like Dave Kuebrich, a professor at George Mason University, to work to stop the widening gap between faculty and administration.

While the average annual salaries of Virginia Tech professors are significantly lower than upper-level administration, the statistic the report uncovered is deceptive, as it is comparing multiple levels of a hierarchical structure (the professorate) to a single position within university administration (the president). This type of measurement is also misleading in that a 5 percent raise for an administrator costs the state, perhaps, $22,000 (as it would for President Steger, considering his state support) while a 5 percent increase for all faculty would, based on their sheer numbers (1,371, of whom over 60 percent are tenured, in the fall of 2008), amount to a much greater expense. Further, Steger's total salary (nearly $700,000) is composed of not only his state support but by a number of perks and deferred compensation that are very uncommon amongst professors, skewing the data even further.

Part of the responsibilities as our university president is also to be an important fundraiser and you don't get those connections and talent for cheap. If universities want the top-drawer leadership necessary to organize and inspire sprawling organizations like Virginia Tech, it isn't unreasonable that universities pay them top dollar. If you want visionary leadership for your university, then you're going to have to pay for it because the competition for those types of managers is quite different from the competition for professors of classical studies, for example.

But the study does raise the issue of the cost balance between administration and faculty. While there is certainly overlap between the two groups through tenured professors that administer their departments and administrators that teach a class now and again and do some research, just as a cumulative raise of roughly $50,000 (what Steger, Provost Mark McNamee and then-vice president for student affairs Zenobia Hikes received between 2007 and 2008) is a nice "thank you" for services rendered, it could also just as easily fund an instructor (average income at Tech in 2007-08: $43,800) or, with a little boost, an assistant professor (average income at Tech: $68,100).

Kuebrich does have a point in that hiring administrators, ostensibly at higher price tags to compete with business and the like, may often yield lower returns than hiring faculty for half as much. Administrators tend to the experience of life at college - they manage our student organizations, they allocate funds, they set up our pep rallies. Faculty are, on the other hand, the backbone of the university and the very underpinning of academic life. While there are good reasons for higher administrative salaries, we would do well to attempt to close that gap.

The editorial board is composed of David Grant, David Harries, Laurel Colella, Jenna Marson and Alexandra Kaufmann.