UCF faculty salaries rank above the state average, according to a study conducted by The American Association of University Professors.
The average faculty salary by rank at UCF for 2008-2009 is $115,800 for professors, $77,700 for associate professors, $64,300 for assistant professors and $45,000 for instructors.
According to the same AAUP report, the average faculty salary at four-year universities in the state of Florida is $93,130 for professors, $69,650 for associate professors, $60,570 for assistant professors and $46,530 for instructors.
The only position to earn below the state average at UCF was for instructors.
“Generally, we are below national averages, but equivalent or ahead of many of the other state universities,” Patrick Murphy, president of the UCF chapter of United Faculty of Florida, said. “An issue faced here is that because of a heavy reliance on merit pay, promotions and competitive awards, many professors who have been here a long time have suffered from what is known as compression.”
Murphy said professors can’t get promotions, since they are top rank, and the merit pay doesn’t enable them to keep pace with newer faculty who are hired in at higher starting salaries.
A study conducted by The Chronicle of Higher Education for 2007-2008 shows the national averages of faculty salaries by rank and field at four-year colleges and universities.
The discipline that earns the highest salary among professors is legal studies, making $129,527 a year on average. Other disciplines that make more than $100,000 a year are engineering ($107,134), business, management, marketing, and related support services ($102,965) and science technologies ($101,406).
“In disciplines such as accounting, engineering, social work or nursing, faculty members can go out in the corporate world and make high salaries working for hospitals or aerospace companies,” Murphy said. “This creates a more competitive salary market for those faculty members who can leave teaching and go into the private sector making more money.”
The discipline earning the least on average as a professor is theology and religious vocations, making $69,855 a year, according to The Chronicle of Higher Education study.
Other disciplines averaging less than $80,000 a year are parks, recreation, leisure, and fitness studies ($76,038), English language and literature ($76,793), history ($79,409), education ($79,281) and visual and performing arts ($76,293).
“We lost a Renaissance faculty member last year to Research and Development Corporation, where she will make more money editing reports than she could get paid here at UCF teaching English,” Murphy said.
Murphy said that if there are fewer opportunities outside of academia, or lower salaries offered in a field, then universities can pay faculty less while staying competitive.
The total number of UCF students has continued to grow. According to UCF’s Office of Institutional Research, the school’s total student enrollment reached 53,644 for fall 2009. The number of faculty however, has decreased in size.
According to Murphy, full time faculty, tenure-line and instructors have shrunk from 1,460 to 1,335 in the last year and a half.
“I talked to a visiting instructor from digital media last night who had one class triple in size from last year to this year,” Murphy said. “In English, we have had to create large-enrollment courses at the lower division to protect class size at the 4000-level.”
According to the National Center for Education Statistics, as of 2007 the national average student-to-faculty ratio was 17.5-to-1. UCF has a student-to-faculty ratio of 30-to-1, according to NCES.
“Within my college, the College of Business Administration, many faculty have left the department of management,” Stanley Smith, finance professor, said. “One of the faculty in finance told me he left because he had not gotten into this profession to teach so many students in one class.”
The United Faculty of Florida at UCF is currently working under a contract from 2007-2008; contracts are renegotiated about every three years. There will be a ratification vote held March 23 and 24 with the UCF Board of Trustees and the UFF bargaining team.
“The Board of Trustees impasse contract will really have little effect, since it is for last year, if we reject it,” Murphy said. “It does mean, however, that they won’t offer any more salary money.”
“The UFF-UCF is recommending a ‘No’ vote because the impasse contract will take away crucial language guaranteeing equitable evaluations of faculty,” Jim Gilkenson, chief negotiator for UFF-UCF, said.
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