|
|
Much of this Viewpoint column is drawn from President Corrigan’s August 23 address to the faculty. The full text will be available on the Web shortly.
Although the CSU had a rough time last year as the system bargained a controversial new faculty contract, I believe our campus came through the merit pay process in reasonably good shape—being able as we were to do both the 1998/1999 and 1999/2000 compensation increases in time for the first paycheck of the new academic year, providing GSI’s, SSI’s, promotion increases and merit increases for the bulk of the faculty. The other 21 CSU campuses are just beginning a process that we complete d in July. So for six months, at least, we may have the best-paid faculty in the CSU!The new median for all tenured/tenure track faculty is $72,000. The CSU average for 1998–99 was $65,659. The average merit increase, exclusive of GSI, SSI, and promotion, was $2,628. Six hundred twenty-four tenured and tenure track faculty members received a merit increase of at least 2.4 percent, which, combined with the 3.6 percent GSI, means that over 80 percent of the tenured/tenure-track faculty received at least 6 percent. Twenty percent received increases greater than 10 percent and five percent received more than 14 percent. Five hundred two of the awards to tenured/tenure-track faculty were the same as or higher than the initial department recommendation; 122 were less. Fifty-eight percent of the merit awards to tenured/tenure-track faculty were greater than three percent; 24 percent higher than five percent, and almost 10 percent were at the 7.5 percent maximum. Many, of course, received more than six percent, some as high as 22 percent, because of our ability to give 7.5 percent for promotion and merit pay increases as high as 7.5 percent, in addition to the SSI’s and GSI’s. Thirty faculty members received promotion increases of 7.5 percent on top of merit, GSI and SSI. One hundred eighty two tenured or tenure track faculty members received an SSI. Forty-eight percent of lecturers recommended for merit received awards. Seventy-eight of the tenured and tenure track faculty were not considered for merit pay because they chose not to participate in the merit pay program, either by so stating or by not submitting a Faculty Activity Report (FAR) that followed the format required by the bargaining process. Having taken political or social stands on issues that I felt very strongly about and having accepted the personal consequences, I can hardly fault faculty members who stand on principle. Many of them, from personal observation, are talented and productive members of our community, and I hope they will choose to participate in the merit pay program in subsequent years. Keeping pace with the cost of living
A few months ago, I undertook a study to determine if SFSU faculty have kept pace with inflation since 1980, as measured by the local CPI. We tracked the salary of every faculty member who was on staff in 1988, adding those who have joined us since then. Of the 824 faculty reviewed, only 80 currently employed, full time faculty have actually lost ground to the CPI since either 1988 or their subsequent date of appointment. And literally hundreds of our faculty have seen their compensation increase far in excess of the CPI.
Of the 80 whose salaries have not kept pace, many are individuals who did not participate in the PSSI or Faculty Merit processes.
I have also reviewed how our salaries compare, not with the CPEC comparison group, but with 14 of the best public urban universities in the country, most of them doctoral granting institutions. Generally we have kept pace at the assistant and associate professor ranks, but have fallen behind at the full professor rank—not surprising considering the institutions with which I was comparing us.
For these calculations, I took the 1998–99 median salaries for the comparison institutions and increased them by 6 percent. I set this as the floor—not the median—and looked at our salaries after completing the merit salary process. Of our entire population of tenured and tenure track faculty, only 97—12 percent—fall below this threshold—meaning that 88 percent of our faculty are at or above the new floor.
A less complicated and more traditional way of looking at this is that the mean salary for SFSU assistant professors went up eight percent to $52,636; the associate-professor mean increased 7.4 percent to $65,000, and full professors went up 5.2 percent to an average of $76,000.
Twice last year, I discussed faculty compensation in "Viewpoint." Looking back on those comments, I see that much has played out as I had then hoped. I wanted to see us emerge with a merit plan "in which a far larger percentage of faculty receive an award, in which awards are made as dollar amounts, rather than steps." As the above statistics demonstrate, that has, indeed, been the case on this campus.
It seemed to me last spring that the proposed agreement would "put us on the path to closing the faculty salary gap." The institutional comparison process I describe above indicates that we are making good progress. It remains true that SFSU faculty live and work in one of the nation’s most expensive housing markets, but the measurement of faculty salaries against the local CPI indicates that—even without any CSU local cost-of-living salary adjustment policy—we are keeping up quite well.
I continue to believe that faculty compensation is "as critical to quality of life on this campus as any issue I can think of." The CSU still has ground to cover before the full salary gap is closed. But I think we can see from this year that Chancellor Reed is an effective advocate in Sacramento, strongly committed to continuing to raise the faculty salary base.
I see our efforts to improve compensation for this faculty as both a recognition of and an investment in quality. This is an exciting place, in my opinion, the best public urban university in America with one of the best faculties and most challenging student populations to be found anywhere in the world. It does not matter which generation of faculty we describe—those who are about to reach retirement age, younger colleagues or those who have joined us in the last decade.
It is in the rough and tumble of the public urban university, with faculty who are able to do the scholarship and the teaching and the service, that the modern university is being created. The faculty of San Francisco State is on the leading edge and deserves to be compensated accordingly.
Return to September First Monday
SFSU, 1600 Holloway Avenue, San Francisco, CA 94132
Last modified September 14, 1999, by Webmaster & Co.