Details:

By James VandenBosch, Professor of Biology

I was the Co-Chair of the EMU Joint Salary Differential Task Force (see link for full report at bottom of this page). As a result of my role on this task force, I am frequently asked to reconcile the salary statements asserted by the EMU administration (Dean Hartmut Hoft) with those presented by the EMU-AAUP President Howard Bunsis. Their conflicting statements are found at the end of this document. Frankly, I can’t reconcile them for two reasons. First, the CUPA (College and University Personnel Association) data used by Dean Hoft are available only by subscription and are not in the public domain. I cannot independently verify the accuracy of their use because the 2005-06 CUPA data were not provided to the Joint SalaryTask Force. Second the description of “peer institutions” provided by Dean Hoft is vague and confusing. Below I provide you with my best analysis. [See update: Truth About Average Salary II]

Although the CUPA data are not accessible for verification, the most authoritative and inclusive data set on academic salaries is publicly available. This is the Annual Report on the Economic Status of the Profession that is published each April in Academe. The data set for each university in both the CUPA and Academe are provided by each reporting university. Therefore, the salary data on EMU’s professors were provided by the EMU administration. The Academe salary report for 2005-06 was used for the discussion below.

I have worked with EMU faculty and administrators for the last several years on this and other databases to examine how EMU salaries compare with “peer” institutions. Dean Hoft was also a member of the task force for a year and was on the previous task force. He is well versed in these data. I do not believe that his (mis)representation of the data was accidental.

EMU Salaries

The most basic question is “Are EMU faculty paid less than the faculty at our peer institutions?” Hoft says no, we’re actually paid more and provides the following CUPA data to support his assertions.

Rank EMU Average Salaries Peer Salaries Average

Professor $79,605 $79,131

Assoc. Professor $64,319 $62,240

Asst. Professor $55,865 $53,846

Instructor $53,458 $43,192

Overall Average $69,351 $68,041

Dean Hoft’s CUPA data would clearly indicate that EMU faculty of every rank earn more than their peers. But how do these data compare to the 2005-06 data published in Academe?

With the exception of the Overall Average ($63,322 in Academe data set), which is inexplicably larger in the CUPA report, the differences between reports for the EMU salaries are small. The discrepancy in Overall Average is not important since, as explained below, its use in comparisons between EMU and its “peer” institutions is not valid. The appropriate comparison should only be between faculty at a given rank. The real problem is the notion of 'peers.'

Peer Salaries – The Case of the Missing Peers

The differences between Dean Hoft’s interpretation and the EMU-AAUP interpretation, therefore, must lie in the values for the peer comparison group. Determining the accuracy of his values is difficult because Dean Hoft does not present much evidence of the institutions in his “peer” group. In his September 6 email, he identifies them as “11 peer public institutions in Michigan (excluding UM, MSU & WSU).” Since there are 15 public universities in Michigan and he excludes UM, MSU and WSU from the comparison, one can only conclude that the 11 peer institutions are the other public universities. However, on the web posting from the same day, it is also explained that Dean Hoft did not include Western Michigan University, Saginaw Valley State University, and Lake Superior State University as peer institutions because they had not submitted data for the CUPA survey. This only leaves eight Michigan public universities. Despite this further reduction in the ranks of possible “peer” universities, he continues to assert “the EMU faculty already earns more each year on average than 11 of its Michigan peer universities.” Therefore, at least three of Dean Hoft’s peer universities must either be private (e.g., Cleary University, Cornerstone University, Spring Arbor University) or else they are not universities at all (perhaps community colleges).

Some Real Salary Data

If you’re reading attentively, you’re probably frustrated that you haven’t seen real, comprehensive data. So here are the unadorned figures. You can do the math. These are the values AAUP President Bunsis used in his statements. Remember, later in this analysis, I explain why the use of the All Ranks salary averages has no relevance for comparing universities.

Salaries of ALL Michigan Public Universities*

(Source: AAUP Faculty Compensation Survey 2005-06)

	University	Prof.	Assoc.	Assist.	Instr.	All
1	U Michigan-Ann Arbor	$125,621	$83,732	$72,775	$61,010	$91,379
2	Michigan St U	$105,890	$76,449	$60,205	$35,765	$82,001
3	Wayne St U	$100,520	$76,264	$61,722	$56,034	$75,555
4	Western Michigan U	$89,776	$68,061	$53,678	$42,556	$68,899
5	U Michigan-Dearborn	$87,107	$67,939	$63,051	none	$68,334
6	Oakland U	$86,276	$66,295	$57,690	$45,776	$66,965
7	Michigan Tech U	$84,439	$65,973	$61,793	$32,636	$67,838
8	Central Michigan U	$84,070	$64,899	$52,287	$35,218	$65,425
9	Grand Valley St U	$80,247	$61,578	$48,252	$40,548	$55,295
10	Eastern Michigan U	$79,905	$64,345	$55,924	$53,458	$63,322
11	Ferris St U	$76,019	$61,342	$53,044	$49,731	$61,545
12	U Michigan-Flint	$74,969	$61,934	$55,302	$46,756	$57,007
13	Northern Michigan U	$72,788	$56,220	$47,129	$38,787	$58,224
	Average	$88,279	$67,310	$57,142	$44,856	$67,8

*Saginaw valley State University and Lake Superior State University did not provide data.

If the large research universities (UM, MSU and WSU) are removed from the analysis, EMU moves up in the rankings, but remains in the lower half of the institutions for the rank of Professor; Associate Professors are at a median point (5th out of 10). Only the Assistant Professors break into the upper half. The values for Instructors are very misleading (see below). If we include Dean Hoft’s three mysterious peer institutions at the bottom of the list, we still don’t get 11 public universities with lower salaries. (Just how many “peers” has Dean Hoft added?)

Salaries of Some Michigan Public Universities - Most Generous Comparison for EMU*

(Source: AAUP Faculty Compensation Survey 2005-06)

	University	Prof.	Assoc.	Assist.	Instr.	All
1	Western Michigan U	$89,776	$68,061	$53,678	$42,556	$68,899
2	U Michigan-Dearborn	$87,107	$67,939	$63,051	none	$68,334
3	Oakland U	$86,276	$66,295	$57,690	$45,776	$66,965
4	Michigan Tech U	$84,439	$65,973	$61,793	$32,636	$67,838
5	Central Michigan U	$84,070	$64,899	$52,287	$35,218	$65,425
6	Grand Valley St U	$80,247	$61,578	$48,252	$40,548	$55,295
7	Eastern Michigan U	$79,905	$64,345	$55,924	$53,458	$63,322
8	Ferris St U	$76,019	$61,342	$53,044	$49,731	$61,545
9	U Michigan-Flint	$74,969	$61,934	$55,302	$46,756	$57,007
10	Northern Michigan U	$72,788	$56,220	$47,129	$38,787	$58,224
	Average	$81,560	$63,859	$54,815	$42,830	$63,286

*After removal of UofM, MSU, and WSU. Saginaw valley State University and lake Superior State University did not provide data.

This analysis is restricted to the assertions on Michigan peer comparisons. It is important to note that comparisons are also available for other peer groups (i.e., the MAC and the administration’s national peer institutions). Those comparisons also demonstrate that the salaries of EMU faculty are significantly lower than faculty at those peer institutions. The EMU-AAUP did the analysis of where EMU ranks in realtion to MAC institution and the peer group chosen by the administration for purposes of benchmarking. That analysis is available in our original salary proposal (other EMU-AAUP data presentations are also available).

The Problems With Using Salary Averages for Instructors and All Ranks

The average of “All” faculty is very misleading. It does not compare similar values. There are two reasons for this. First, the proportion of faculty at each rank varies greatly among the different schools. EMU salaries appear elevated simply because the faculty are more senior - nearly half (48%) of EMU faculty are full Professors compared to about one third of the faculty at CMU and WMU and less than 20% of GVSU faculty. Second, included in the “All” category are Instructors, a category that is handled differently at different schools. For instance, EMU lists only 8 Instructors (1% of All faculty), 75% of whom are tenured. EMU does not include its full-time lecturers. In contrast, WMU, CMU and GVSU report around 8% (7%, 10%, and 8%, respectively) of their faculty as Instructors and almost none of them are tenured (0%, 0%, and 4%, respectively). Instructors at these schools appear to be similar to EMU’s full-time lecturers. Therefore, the average salary for All Ranks at EMU is artificially inflated relative to other institutions by the EMU administration’s exclusion of full-time lecturers. If we were to assume that EMU full-time faculty included the 129 full-time lecturers with an average 2005-06 salary of $32,000, the average salary for All Faculty at EMU would fall from $63,322 to $58,088. With these factors in mind, it is clear that the more accurate comparisons are of salaries within a given rank.

Conclusion

The assertions made by AAUP President Howard Bunsis are based upon and accurately reflect the published data. The assertions made by Dean Hoft are based on unpublished data and misleading descriptions of the peer groups used to support his claims.

 

Note: The differences in salary data between Dean Hoft’s e-mail and his web posting were in the original documents and not errors in my transcription.

For more information, see

Facts and Myths

MYTH: The average salary of EMU faculty is similar to the average salary of their peers.

FACT: EMU full professor salaries are 10th out 13 of Michigan public universities

FACT: EMU all rank salaries are 9th out of 13 of Michigan public universities

FACT: EMU full professor salaries are 11th out of 12 in the Mid-American Conference

FACT: EMU all rank salaries are 10th out of 12 in the Mid-American Conference

Comment: Our faculty salaries are close to the bottom when compared to various peer groups. And remember that EMU faculty reside in the 2nd most expensive area of Michigan, and the most expensive area of the Mid-American Conference. The details are in the file below. Note that the administration itself chose a peer group for comparison and benchmarking purposes several years ago. Our salary is below that average as well. Yet in documents in their website, they claim we are at or slightly above average for our peers. But they would not disclose who those peers are, and it seems likely they were chosen simply because their salary was at or below ours.

For More information, see:

See update: Truth About Average Salary II]

Letter to the Editor, Detroit News from President Bunsis (correcting errors from only using EMU press releases as a basis for their editorial)

Comparison of Sept 8 proposals by EMU-AAUP and the administration