The Annual Report On The Economic Status Of The Profession, 2009-10

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The Annual Report On The Economic Status Of The Profession, 2009-10

List of Tables and Figures
See tables as one file (.pdf)
Explanation of Statistical Data
Download this report (.pdf)
Appendix I State tables (for specific institutions) (.pdfs)
  Alabama - Maryland
  Massachusetts - North Carolina
  North Dakota - Wyoming
Appendix II Institutions without Academic Ranks (.pdf)
Notes to Appendices I and II (.pdf)

For faculty members seeking a refuge from the financial storms currently buffeting the American economy, this year’s report provides little in the way of good news. The average salary for a full-time faculty member was only 1.2 percent higher in 2009–10 than in the previous academic year, the lowest year-to-year change recorded in the fifty years of this comprehensive annual survey. For faculty members who remained employed at the same institution as the previous year, the average rate of salary increase was somewhat higher but still below the rate of inflation. That represents the first inflation-adjusted decrease in salaries for continuing faculty since the hyperinflation years of the late 1970s.

As this report has emphasized in recent years, even in these difficult financial times for higher education, decisions about institutional spending are concrete indicators of institutional priorities. It is imperative that faculty members play a meaningful role in making those decisions about spending if the negative consequences for the core academic mission of our institutions are to be minimized. Mandatory unpaid furloughs, hiring and salary freezes, and reductions in retirement fund contributions are all symptoms of a continuing disinvestment in the fundamental resource of a college or university: its people, and most particularly its faculty.

Since the financial turbulence is likely to continue for at least another year or two, our report offers a kind of primer on the various components of the revenue stream for higher education. State appropriations; the interplay of tuition prices, enrollment, and financial aid; charitable giving; and returns on endowment fund investments are all part of the picture. Much of the news is bad, but the significance of each component varies from one institution to another—and decisions about how to respond to a changing revenue picture are by no means preordained. We encourage our colleagues to take the initiative to find out more about the situation at their own colleges and universities, so that they can do their part to preserve and promote the teaching and research enterprise about which we all care so deeply. The lesson to be learned from the difficult economic challenges facing faculty and all of higher education is that the time to act is now.

Unless otherwise indicated, the data in this report were provided by institutions responding to the AAUP Faculty Compensation Survey and were compiled and analyzed by the AAUP Research Office. Any questions concerning the report should be directed to the American Association of University Professors, Research Office.