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Ball State lags behind other Indiana colleges when it comes to average salaries of full professors, according to a recent American Association of University Professors’ Faculty Salary Survey.
The study said Ball State placed 14th out of 35 Indiana colleges and universities for average amount paid to full professors as well as 11th for the average salary of associate professors and 13th for assistant professors.
Full professors are tenured and have produced a scholarly work. Associates are tenured and have not produced significant work, while assistants are on track to receive tenure.
Although the statistics may look straightforward, professor of economics and business research Michael Hicks said the reality is much more complicated.
“The fact is that our composition of our faculty is very different than the composition of faculty at any other Indiana university,” he said.
Terry King, provost and vice president for academic affairs, said recent data points out that some academic disciplines garner higher salaries than others.
“Law school faculty members are paid 60 percent more than the average faculty member. Engineers are paid 25 percent more. Health professions faculty like doctors are paid 19 percent more,” he said in an email. “While we do have a nursing program, we do not have any other programs that have such high market demands for compensation well above average.”
AAUP’s 2013-14 faculty survey did not include the salaries of medical school faculty and in some unspecified cases, also didn’t include faculty members of law, dentistry, nursing, business and engineering, according to the website.
King also accredited Ball State’s smaller salaries to the lower cost of living in Muncie.
Hicks said Muncie’s cost of living, while lower than that of Indianapolis or Chicago, didn’t differ drastically from that of Bloomington or West Lafayette’s.
A house bought in Muncie might be bigger for less money, but would not grow in value as much as one in a larger city, he said.
“It’s not clear that it’s the benefit that folks argue it is,” he said.
Instead, Hicks said the true measure of how well Ball State pays its educators compared to other Indiana colleges would be more telling with the turnover rate.
“If we cannot keep the faculty that we’re trying to keep because of salary, then we have a problem,” he said.
As far as Hicks can see, the mediocre rank for staff salaries isn’t a big issue for Ball State.
Laura Wilson, an assistant German professor, is contract faculty, meaning Ball State rehires her every year, but doesn’t have an obligation to.
“I won’t ever get promoted,” she said.
The average salary an assistant professor at Ball State made in the 2013-14 school year was $58,700, according to AAUP’s survey.
“Basically I have to save my money, which is fine. I just don’t spend everything that I earn every month and I have to think ahead each time,” Wilson said.
She saves because Wilson only gets paid eight months out of the year. She researched and found that even a high school German language teacher would make more than her.
Still, she said she’s happy with where she is because the health insurance and extra pay for her hard work keep her satisfied with her job.
Hicks said research dollars and other opportunities provided by departments can factor in heavily to whether Ball State professors are satisfied or not.
To Wilson, feeling valued by her coworkers and students ranks higher on her list of needs than a bigger salary.
“I think I’m in a good section where I have two people who admire my work and want me to stay, so they let me decide the types of things I will be doing,” she said.
