Two Related Myths About Costs and Faculty in Higher Ed

I will continue the series on Service-Learning in a couple of days. Given the intense focus on today's financial crisis that is forcing everyone, everywhere to make their case to remain gainfully employed I thought I would share an e-mail I was sent from Gary Rhoades, General Secretary, of the American Association of University Professors. Although education is a part of the economy that as a whole seems to be adding jobs as people seek to retool themselves to land the jobs that will come available as we climb out of this recession, it is still important for teachers in higher education to remember their value by debunking two myths.

Myth 1: Tuition increases are driven by increases in faculty costs.
Myth 2: Faculty are the labor cost in higher education.

In debunking these widely held myths we must clarify three basic points:

1) You can’t blame faculty salaries for increases in tuition and costs. Faculty salary increases have been well below increases in tuition and well below increases in senior administrators’ salaries, which have increased disproportionately. Adjusted for inflation, tuition increases between 1989 and 2005 averaged about 6 percent a year; between 2002 and 2006, tuition at public universities increased by over 29 percent. From 1999–2000 to 2007–08, the yearly increase in overall average faculty salary ranged from 2.1 to 3.8 percent; adjusted for inflation, faculty salaries either decreased or increased less than 1 percent in six of those years (see table A in the 2007–08 Annual Report on the Economic Status of the Profession). Between 1995–96 and 2005–06, presidential salaries increased by 35 percent, adjusted for inflation, compared to 5 percent for average faculty salaries (figure 3, 2006-07 Annual Report on the Economic Status of the Profession from 2005-06 to 2007-08, the two-year increase in senior administrators’ salaries outpaced both inflation and the increase in average salary for full professors (figures 1 and 2, 2007–08 Annual Report on the Economic Status of the Profession).

2) You can’t blame increases in faculty numbers for increased tuition and costs. Full-time tenure-track faculty numbers have increased at a far slower rate than have numbers of other professionals and administrators.Between 1976 and 2005, full-time tenure-track positions in the United States increased by only 17 percent, compared to a 281 percent increase in nonfaculty professionals and a 101 percent increase in administrators (see figure 3 in the 2007–08 Annual Report on the Economic Status of the Profession).

3) Spending on instruction has declined in all sectors of higher education, while spending on administrative costs has increased. Between 1995 and 2006, overall spending increased, but the share of instruction was down in all sectors (for example, in public master’s institutions it was down from 53.9 to 50.8 percent; in private master’s institutions it was down from 45.0 to 43.0 percent). The share of student services increased (from 9.9 to 10.9 percent in public master’s institutions and from 13.9 to 15.6 percent in private master’s institutions), as did that of administration and other support (from 36.2 to 38.2 percent and from 41.1 to 41.4 percent, respectively). (See figure 8, Trends in College Spending.)

Hope this helps in case someone with a budget axe looks your way.