Professor Pay: Comments from Both Ends of the Spectrum

“Professor Pay: Comments from Both Ends of the Spectrum,” is an article that touches on topics discussed in the following article written by Isabel Aecvedo: Pacific Professors Experiencing Burnout: https://www.thepacifican.com/news/k4a0ugbnn7vahz33ofgl3t2300zkkz 

The following statements made by professors were made in Spring of 2022. As of September of 2022, professors were given, on average,  a 2% pay raise based on merit. 

For the purposes of this article, the issues investigated will be split into four sections: Professor burnout, anecdotes from professors with children, commentary on inflation, and an interview with COO Ken Mullen and CFO James Walsh.

Professor Burnout

In an interview I had with an anonymous professor and department chair – who will be referred to as Professor X – Professor X discusses professor complaints from their colleagues and/or what they have directly experienced.

“We are exhausted, totally burnt out. It is not the admin's fault, but we have had to do a lot of pivoting. We had to make sure that all of our faculty are up to speed. Then, we met with faculty and had department meetings once a week… ensuring things are best for the students. Right after Spring 2020, we went into major student recruitment – but we predicted a 20% drop in enrollment. Me, and other department chairs, had a lot of work to do in the summer. By Spring 2021, the students and professors had had it” says Professor X.

Another professor, who will be referred to as Professor Y, shares their thoughts on how they feel  overload of professors is  due to an over-involvement in student recruitment and retention issues.

Professor Y says, “[Administration] should give us something – it’s symbolic to show that you recognize we are working really hard and that we are appreciated.”

Professors with Children

Professor Z, a professor with children, mentions the struggles they have juggling their job at the university and having children at home during COVID times. 

Professor Z mentions that faculty with children face constant struggles in the status quo – they are doing several things at the same time. Due to COVID restrictions, daycares are often shut down which affects professors both during online instruction and in-person instruction. 

“Suppose daycare shuts down and you are in a Zoom class. How do you teach with a baby on your lap? What if it’s for an extended period of time?” says Professor W. 

In person, says Professor W, these same harms still exist. “Professors are juggling classes for their job trying to focus on their students, but all the while, kids are getting COVID, daycares are shutting down, and finding babysitters is harder than ever.”

“[Being a parent and professor] has been super hard. We don’t feel safe sending our unvaxed younger kids to group childcare, and we can’t afford private care. We have a sitter a few hours a week, but I have to be with him for a few hours during the work week, and make up the work at night. The university has definitely made things harder.” says Professor W. 

Inflation and Raises 

At Pacific, there is a chapter of AAUP (American Association of University Professors). AAUP effectively functions as an academic union – their mission is as follows, “... to advance academic freedom and shared governance; to define fundamental professional values and standards for higher education; to promote the economic security of faculty, academic professionals, graduate students, post-doctoral fellows, and all those engaged in teaching and research in higher education; to help the higher education community organize to make our goals a reality; and to ensure higher education's contribution to the common good.”

*For reference, the members of AAUP are not elected, but a member organization.

AAUP wrote an open letter to President Callahan on salary depreciation and the state of inflation (inflation being 7.5% at the time). The main intent of the letter is to ask for a cost-of-living adjustment (COLA) to salaries: that way, professors are able to supply their needs despite the increasing rate of inflation.

Professor W remarks, “after the letter, he said there will be a modest merit increase. Not on the cost of living (COLA), but it will be up to the dean deciding who gets what based on annual reviews. Is it 1% or 2% – nowhere near 7.5%. But what if you get 0?”

Professor W mentions that they would like the lowest paid to get a salary increase, and cites the McGeorge School of Law budget crisis a couple of years ago: larger increases were given to the lowest paid and lower to the highest paid.

Additionally, Professor Z recounts their experience during the 2020-21 school year: “I was assigned an extra class as tenured faculty during the 2020-21 school year. Our workload was upped without any increase in pay, and with a decrease in contributions to our retirement. They took it back, but I just still feel so offended by the fact that it ever happened and think a public apology is in order. Now our healthcare somehow has high deductibles and doesn't cover a lot of what it used to.” 

Interview with COO Ken Mullen and CFO James Walsh 

*The interview with COO Ken Mullen and CFO James Walsh reflects only upon the concerns directly related to professor pay. Professor burnout remains an ongoing discussion, making this a living article. 

1. How much would student tuition have to increase if staff and professors got a wage raise that is close to proportional to the current rate of inflation (8.3%)?

Ken Mullen, COO (KM): “The tuition and wage increase are very closely correlated. If there was a wage increase similar to the inflation rate, we would likely see a tuition rate increase that was similar because of that correlation. That's just the model that we have – we are a tuition focused  university…when it comes to the tuition rate increase, there are a lot of people involved in this discussion: the board, the institutional budget committee, which includes staff, faculty and students…none of this is done unilaterally, there are committees that allow us to be sustainable now and in the future.”

2. Could an elevation of staff pay cause a trade off with the funding of student services?

James Walsh, CFO (JW): “So very importantly, we are a student focused university… so, for many of our decisions, the priority is: what do the students need?”

KM: “I’ve been here the longest and I've never seen a trade off  where we cut off student services to fund something else, that would be counter to why we exist. We are very careful not to do that – in fact we err the other way to make sure those services are funded. Part of that funding are those services and delivering them with excellence means that you have to have excellent staff. And so you get this tension, you have to pay the staff to bring in talent, and keep the talent here, and provide the services, and you have to fund the services. There is constant dialogue to make sure that we are walking that balance to provide optimal services.”

3. What factors were used to determine the recent 2% pay raise?

JW: The determination of the increase is done through a number of discussions and also includes discussions with the institute's budget committee which includes faculty, staff, and students. The 2% is an average, those with more achievements have a higher increase. So the factors that impact that decision are things like: tuition, enrollment, and then there’s macroeconomic factors – like the COVID crisis that we saw. 

KM: The 2% is a merit increase, it is not an across the board increase, so we reward achievement when it impacts student services directly or indirectly. It is a rigorous process all through the year really, where we are meeting with our supervisor continually. Even though we have an annual performance review process for employees, we really are getting a gauge on that at least probably once a month if not more. That merit is going to emphasize and provide momentum to ultimately improve the student experience. And we would love to always keep up with inflation but we are in an environment right now where that is very challenging.

4. Would an elevation in student enrollment help pay for pay increases?

We would likely also see a similar increase in tuition– the two are very closely linked. Most of our revenue comes from student charges, tuition, housing and dining, and most of our expenses are compensations and benefits related. So, certainly an increase in enrollment would increase that revenue which would then really would help us to further support our student focused efforts. 

KM: You can't move one without moving the other, it would imbalance the budget. 

5. Are there any areas that you would like to see improvement in in terms of professor and staff benefits?

JW: As it relates to benefits, our goal is to make sure that we always have a competitive package that supports our talent and acquisition. We believe that we have a competitive package right now, but we do monitor the markets very closely. We work with our broker and our compensation committee which is made up of faculty and staff to review benefits so we can adjust them and review them.

KM: We actually met with the committee about 8 times. We also had the academic counsel leadership, the staff advisory council leadership involved… We really started back in May and just finished the package late September. We have brokers that have a national presence and they understand what a competitive package looks like. If not at market, we are above market to some degree so we are very confident in that.

“Professor Pay: Comments from Both Ends of the Spectrum,” serves as an informational piece that includes comments from professors, staff, and board members alike. Again, this article is a living article: not every concern addressed by professors is a concern that could be addressed within the interview with COO Ken Mullen and CFO James Walsh.