Spring Break
Geneseo salaries don't stack up
Kevin Muller
Issue date: 10/23/08 Section: News
Drastic cuts in New York state's budget will delay the administration's efforts to improve the salaries of professional faculty and staff at Geneseo.
Provost Katherine Conway-Turner said that Geneseo's professors are "notoriously underpaid," despite being, "far better than average" in quality. Salaries are partially negotiated by United University Professions, a union for employees of the SUNY system. Salaries are generally based on discipline, years of service and academic rank.
Conway-Turner said she uses studies by UUP and the College and University Professional Association to determine the median salary for professors within a certain discipline and rank, such as an associate professor of history. She also compares salaries of Geneseo faculty to those of other benchmark institutions and SUNY schools.
Last year, the provost and President Christopher Dahl developed a salary adjustment plan to increase the salaries of professors who had been making less than the CUPA medians.
Faculty members with more than five years of service were brought up to the median for their discipline and rank, and faculty with one to five years of service were brought up to 75 percent of the median. Of the $800,000 put toward enacting the adjustments, some of it was allotted for discretionary increases.
Conway-Turner said it was a "step in the right direction. We hope to be able to continue to make steps toward putting [faculty] in a position of having better salaries."
She had hoped to assess the situation every year and make adjustments as necessary, but the deterioration of the SUNY budget has been a setback to the process.
The provost said that establishing a timeline for continued salary adjustments is difficult because of the unpredictability of the state budget, but that the administration hoped to make "more major adjustments when times are better."
"I appreciate that the administration is taking measures to bring us up to par," said chemistry professor Ruel McKnight. "They're headed in the right direction, but it's not there yet."
Provost Katherine Conway-Turner said that Geneseo's professors are "notoriously underpaid," despite being, "far better than average" in quality. Salaries are partially negotiated by United University Professions, a union for employees of the SUNY system. Salaries are generally based on discipline, years of service and academic rank.
Conway-Turner said she uses studies by UUP and the College and University Professional Association to determine the median salary for professors within a certain discipline and rank, such as an associate professor of history. She also compares salaries of Geneseo faculty to those of other benchmark institutions and SUNY schools.
Last year, the provost and President Christopher Dahl developed a salary adjustment plan to increase the salaries of professors who had been making less than the CUPA medians.
Faculty members with more than five years of service were brought up to the median for their discipline and rank, and faculty with one to five years of service were brought up to 75 percent of the median. Of the $800,000 put toward enacting the adjustments, some of it was allotted for discretionary increases.
Conway-Turner said it was a "step in the right direction. We hope to be able to continue to make steps toward putting [faculty] in a position of having better salaries."
She had hoped to assess the situation every year and make adjustments as necessary, but the deterioration of the SUNY budget has been a setback to the process.
The provost said that establishing a timeline for continued salary adjustments is difficult because of the unpredictability of the state budget, but that the administration hoped to make "more major adjustments when times are better."
"I appreciate that the administration is taking measures to bring us up to par," said chemistry professor Ruel McKnight. "They're headed in the right direction, but it's not there yet."
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