Wednesday, April 8, 1998
Community Briefs
College faculty salaries up 3.4 percent this year
WASHINGTON — College faculty salaries rose 3.4 percent this
year, with full professors at research universities now making just
under $80,000, a study released Tuesday showed.
With inflation running at just half that rate, it was the
largest increase in faculty pay in a decade, said the American
Association of University Professors (AAUP).
But professors still lag far behind other professionals when it
comes to salary, and their pay, when adjusted for inflation, is
actually 4.4 percent lower today than it was in 1971-72, the AAUP
said.
The findings are based on an association survey of 1,839
colleges and universities in 1997-98.
College and university faculty earned 42 percent less than other
professionals with similar levels of education, the study said.
That comparison was based on federal earnings data for workers with
at least 18 years of education.
For example, the lowest-paid engineers and lawyers earned
roughly $8,000 more than the lowest-paid professors in 1996, the
study said. By contrast, the highest-paid engineers and lawyers
earned about $62,000 more than the highest-paid professors.
Jacqueline King of the American Council on Education, a group
representing university presidents, acknowledged that professors
haven’t made any real salary gains since the 1970s, but said
schools are also under tremendous pressure to keep tuition
down.
"On one hand – the faculty, they work hard, they’re prepared
with a lot of education for their jobs – this is not a lot of
money," she said.
"At the same time … institutions have to do all they can to
keep their costs down, and one of their biggest costs is salaries,"
she said. "Institutions are under a lot of competing
pressures."
The average salary for full professors at research universities
– those with doctoral programs – was $79,346.
The study also found increasing disparities among faculty at
different types of colleges. Overall, faculty at doctoral-level
schools earned 28 percent more than those at schools with some
postgraduate programs, 50 percent more than those at primarily
undergraduate schools and 52 percent more than teachers at two-year
colleges.
Alleged misuse of toxic waste spawns lawsuit
A grass-roots group along with city of Berkeley officials
announced Tuesday that a brief has been filed in a lawsuit against
the UC Regents for their alleged misuse of toxic waste at the
Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (LBNL).
Standing in front of 2134 Martin Luther King Jr. Way in
Berkeley, about 15 members of the Group to Eliminate Toxics said
the laboratory and the regents have ignored the community’s request
for a detailed report on the effects over the past 10 years of
their methods of tritium disposal. The UC system operates LBNL and
the regents give contracts to the lab.
"Before LBNL used tritium in the lab, they should do a
comprehensive study to carefully analyze the impact of tritium,"
said Michael Freund, the prosecuting attorney. "The report must be
a full disclosure on environmental harms and alternatives to what
is happening right now."
The lawsuit calls for an up-to-date Environmental Impact Report
in compliance with the California Environmental Quality Act. The
last report was done in 1992, but since then, new information was
released on the possible effects of tritium, according to
Freund.
The lawsuit is funded jointly by the city of Berkeley and the
city of Oakland. Vice Mayor Maudelle Shirek and Councilmember Kriss
Worthington were both at the press conference to speak in support
of the lawsuit.
Compiled from Daily Bruin staff and wire reports.