Shelbie Harris
News Editor
Finding ways to attract new, distinguished professors with competitive salaries while remaining fair and just to existing faculty members has put many universities into a human resource quandary.
Idaho State University is no exception.
“There is substantial salary inversion in all of the departments in this college,” said Richard Brey, interim dean for the College of Science and Engineering at ISU, “and as far as I know in every other college within this university.”
Because of things such as salary inversion, where salaries for new recruits increase faster than those for existing employees, and salary compression – only small differences in salary separate junior and senior faculty members – concerns of low morale and inequity have emerged at ISU.
An email recently distributed to several faculty members in the biological sciences department exemplifies the mounting concerns.
Sent Dec. 10 from moc.liamgnull@7rdnanirp, the email stated, “The new non-tenure track [assistant professor nine-month] teaching job in ISU [biological sciences] will pay $67,000. The position has the same responsibilities as a lecturer (no research), so not sure why it’s a [professor] position. How many of you have been at ISU for years doing [nine] months (or 12 mos?) [sic] of teaching and don’t make this much? Thoughts?”
“I got the email too,” said Mark Austin, department chair of biological sciences. “It was bizarre. I don’t know anything about it and actually only a few faculty asked me if I got it as well, but I don’t know where it came from.”
ISU’s faculty and staff career website lists the position and it states, “Salary will be commensurate with education and experience,” however, according to Brey the amount offered for the position is the mean of the value for associate professors.
“When people come to the university they negotiate salary,” Brey said. “That salary [$67,000] is not what a person’s going to get. It depends on the qualifications of the applicant and what they negotiate, but that’s the maximum amount of salary in that position, and that’s what’s advertised.”
According to the ISU 2015-2016 fiscal year budget report, the biological sciences department has 31 faculty positions with three vacant positions, one for an associate professor, one for an assistant professor and one for a group part time instructor.
This was before former ISU professor specializing in immunotoxicology, and 2015 outstanding research award winner, Jean Pfau, resigned last semester. With Carolyn Weber, assistant professor specializing in microbial ecology, announcing her resignation effective the end of the spring 2016 semester the total number of vacant positions will increase from three to five pending the results of the current applicant search.
Additionally, the budget notes 12 faculty members who, for fiscal year 2015-2016, make less than $67,000 with one-third of those faculty members having been at ISU since the early ‘90s. The total salary for the biological sciences department is $2.16 million, which would indicate $69,000 as the average faculty salary.
Pfau, who is now working in Bozeman at Montana State University, said in an email, “I love ISU and its students. I had a great [eight] years there. I think emphasizing the really positive things that are happening at ISU right now is better than highlighting my leaving. I think everyone knows that having a full professor leave their position is [not] normal, and I really do not want to explain publicly.”
According to Brey not every biologist is the same, with different disciplines demanding different salaries. He also stated this occurs in just about all departments with multiple programs.
“It’s just the way it is. It’s the marketplace,” Brey said. “It’s a free-market system, if someone is unhappy with their salary, or unhappy with their job, you know what we do in this country? We go out and get another job. No one criticizes that.”
Regarding faculty members within the biological sciences department recently departing, Brey added, “We want change. We encourage people to look around and do what’s right for them.”
The job posting states applicants must have a doctorate degree in biology or a related discipline, display evidence of excellence in teaching and demonstrate experience in college-level teaching in the microbiology and anatomy and physiology disciplines.
The responsibilities of the position include teaching nine to 12 credit hours per semester of undergraduate and graduate core courses in the biomedical sciences curriculum including but not limited to microbiology, human anatomy and physiology, and upper division courses such as cellular and molecular biology.
“It’s a really broad advertisement,” Austin said. “We have so many teaching needs in microbiology, cell and molecular biology and other disciplines that we put the ad out to capture a broad audience. It’s dependent upon what kind of candidates we get applying for the job.”
Though Brey stated the best interest of students is central to changes within the department, salary issues such as compression, inversion, progression and equality could explain why vacant positions are manifesting within not only the department, but also the university as a whole leaving students to wonder if departing faculty has negatively influenced their education.
