Report on the Economic Status of the Profession (USA)

“With the broader economy in free fall and new indicators reported almost daily, the economic outlook for faculty members and higher education is anything but clear. ‘On the Brink: The Annual Report on the Economic Status of the Profession, 2008-09′ provides the most up-to-date and comprehensive analysis available of faculty salaries at colleges and universities around the country. Even so, the data alone don’t tell the whole story. That’s why this year’s report encourages faculty members to take action now to ensure that cuts to higher education funding do not undermine the foundation upon which colleges and universities are built: their faculties. Wrong choices now, the report warns, could have negative consequences for years to come. . . . 

When full-time faculty salary levels for this academic year were set in mid-2008, inflation was running at its highest rate in nearly twenty years. Average faculty salaries had been stagnant for most of the previous decade and were budgeted to stay that way—until the bottom fell out of the rest of the economy. Soon after the academic year was underway, consumer prices tumbled along with investment returns, and colleges and universities began announcing salary and hiring freezes, involuntary furloughs, and even layoffs. Labor economist Saranna Thornton, chair of the AAUP’s Committee on the Economic Status of the Profession and lead author of this year’s report, notes that ‘On paper, aggregate faculty salaries for this year look pretty good, since inflation is suddenly at its lowest level in half a century. But it won’t be until we have next year’s data that we can begin to assess the true consequences of the recession of 2008 on higher education.’ Given the dark clouds looming on the horizon, Thornton notes that it will be difficult for faculty members to focus on the silver lining of a low inflation rate.

Much of the recent news from private colleges and universities has focused on the loss of value in their endowment funds during the last year. Although institutional endowments have clearly declined, just as have individual retirement investments, colleges and universities vary in their reliance upon endowment income for general operating costs. This year’s report takes a look at some of that variation. . . .

Probably the most salient feature of the higher education landscape in the last three decades has been the increasing insecurity of faculty employment. More than half of all faculty members are now hired on a part-time basis, one course at a time, most often with no job security and no benefits. This year’s report documents the latest comprehensive figures on the expansion of contingent faculty appointments, both part-time and full-time, and provides a sampling of reports on how contingent faculty members are faring in the economic downturn.

This year’s report also adds to the AAUP’s ongoing analysis of gender equity in faculty employment with fresh data on trends in women’s advancement through the faculty ranks. Although many colleges and universities are approaching parity between men and women in entry-level assistant professor appointments, the report notes that progress in advancing women to senior professor ranks is slower. At universities granting doctoral degrees, there are still four men full professors for every woman holding that rank. The substantial remaining impediments to women’s advancement as faculty members reinforce the AAUP’s longstanding call for higher education to renew its commitment to complete equality of opportunity for women.” — AAUP Newsletter

The Report itself is available here.