Collegiate Times

The 2006-07 Annual Report on the Economic Status of the Profession reports that between the 1995-96 and 2005-06 academic years, university presidential salaries increased by 35 percent while average faculty salaries increased by 5 percent.

These findings, compiled by the American University of University Professors, have come to the attention of Dave Kuebrich, an English professor and the senate secretary at George Mason University. In collaboration with the other members of the George Mason chapter of the AAUP, Kuebrich submitted a resolution to the Virginia chapter of the AAUP with the hopes of stopping the widening pay gap between university faculty and upper-level administration.

"We feel as though there is a structural problem in the performance review and awarding of administrative salary increases. At present there is insufficient oversight, and a clear need for new policies or guidelines that will stop the growing gap," Kuebrich said. "Our ultimate goal is to raise this issue with the state legislature, whether at the General Assembly or State Council of Higher Education."

At the March 29 meeting of the Virginia chapter of the AAUP, the association's executive committee voted to look into the matter further and created a task force assigned to collect data and determine if action should be taken.

"First we want to see if there is in fact a problem with the salary gap," said Brian Turner, a political science professor at Randolph Macon College and head of the task force. "If we do, we'll then look into an appropriate place to address these problems."

The task force, consisting of two other executive committee members along with Turner and Kuebrich, plans to seek out historical data to support Kuebrich's claim that the pay gap is becoming excessive. If sufficient data is collected, the task force hopes to pass guidelines in regards to the pay gap.

An example of such a guideline given in Kuebrich's resolution is that the ratio between the average administrator's salary and that of a member of the faculty should not exceed a set limit.

"In all likelihood, it would be hard to lower the current salaries of the administrators," said Craig Vasey, president-elect of the AAUP's Virginia Chapter. "Rather it would set guidelines for what would be an appropriate gap to be applied to future salaries."

According to the AAUP's annual Faculty Salary Survey, the average annual salary of a Virginia Tech professor in the 2008-09 school year was $116,800. Associate professors made an average of $84,600 a year, assistant professors made $70,400 a year and instructors made $45,500 a year.

Opposite the faculty, in the years 2006-07, Kuebrich's resolution states that Tech president Charles Steger made $681,434 including bonuses and deferred compensation.

Turner said some of this trend is attributed to the people in the administrative positions.

"Historically, university administrators had been professors or members within the institution who have worked up to administrative positions," Turner explained. "The underlying problem is that institutions are increasingly hiring CEOs without a history in academia."

Although the task force intends to focus on the state of Virginia and the salary trends, Kuebrich has a higher goal in mind when it comes to the issue.

"The resolution I've submitted calls for a statewide examination of the salary gap," said Kuebrich. "But I hope the Virginia Chapter will encourage the National AAUP to adopt a similar resolution on this matter. The implementation of such a resolution would require hard work, but I believe there is a lot of support for limiting upper-level administrative pay among both the faculty and the general public."

The task force has yet to begin its data collection as it's newly formed and the groundwork is still being laid, but the hopes for Kuebrich are high. However, the chance of legislation being passed in regards to the issue remains in question.

"At the March 29 meeting on the matter I brought up the issue with (State Democratic) Senator John Edwards," Vasey said. "He didn't feel as the though the idea was plausible and seemed to feel that the matter should be left to the institutions themselves."