It’s a sign of the times. Last week, ASU President Michael Crow told students that faculty would go an additional year without a salary adjustment.This, ostensibly, is a sign of budget constraints: Crow is telling students that times are so tough that faculty isn’t getting a raise. This guy makes me sick.
Times couldn’t be better at ASU. Since 2007 annual revenues are up by $400 million for a total annual revenue of $1.7 billion, from which Crow skims his $736,600 salary. Indeed, the rate of increase in revenue is so impressive that the Arizona Board of Regents gave Crow a $600,000 bonus — a figure made even more grotesque in light of Morgan Stanley, the worldwide investment firm with more than $800 billion in assets, capping annual bonuses at $125,000.
To be fair, Crow agreed to defer his bonus. However, he only deferred his bonus as part of his rebranding campaign. A deferment, after all, isn’t a donation or a refusal; it’s an agreement to accept at a later date.
There is a problem. Lecturers in the English department make between $40,000 to $51,000 per year to teach 150 students per semester. Tenured professors in the same department have an annual salary of $200,000 to teach fewer than 17 students. Lecturers in the School of Accountancy make $66,000, while deans of colleges make between $200,000 and $350,000 per year. Faculty associates in the English department — who have either a masters or Ph.D. — make $3,000 per class, or about $24,000 per year.
Why is there such a wide gap? Only the most naive students and dishonest administrators can argue that salaries are proportional to work. There’s no way professors who essentially get paid to promote their own work, and dean of humanities at the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences Neal Lester, who makes $250,000 per year, do five times the amount of work of nurses. Indeed, some tenured professors have taught fewer students in the past three years than one lecturer in the English department this academic year.
But professors are only a small part of the University. General maintenance workers, who by far do the most work, make $33,000, while some student workers make minimum wage.
And for what reason? It’s certainly not lack of funds. Judging by the ASU 2011 Financial Report, the University is not in a financial crisis. Despite the tax cuts, ASU is increasing revenue at about $100 million per year.
The pay inequality is unjust and must be dealt with. Firing just two tenured professors or deans would free up roughly $500,000, enough to double the salaries of 10 lecturers in the English department. And unless Crow becomes willing to share the largesse of the University, tenured professors and deans must go.
The alternative is that Crow goes. In austere times it is more sensible to get rid of the largest expenses and find ways to deal with the effects than to further marginalize the already poor faculty. Either ASU has a budget crisis, or President Crow is being greedy. It’s time to get real.
Reach William at whamilt@asu.edu
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