UW-Eau Claire does not have salaries that are competitive with the rest of the nation and the divide is growing wider, Vice Chancellor Andy Soll said.

A recent survey by the American Association of University Professors found that the average salaries of University of Wisconsin faculty at comprehensive campuses have fallen and continue to fall. This comes at a time when salaries of college faculty from across the United States increased 2.1 percent in 2003-2004 and another 2.8 percent in 2004-2005.

“We have major concerns about the competitiveness of our salaries,” Soll said, “and have been speaking very openly and publicly about that for years.”

Salaries at Eau Claire have nearly always lagged behind the rest of the nation, Soll said, but recently the schism has widened.

“Our salaries have always trailed, but in this two-year period, we’ve lost ground,” he said.

Today, faculty members at Eau Claire are making about 6 percent less than their peers, Soll estimated.

According to the AAUP survey, in 2004-2005, professors at Eau Claire earned $66,500 on average, while associate professors earned about $54,700 each and assistant professors each brought in an average of $47,500.

By comparison, at the University of Minnesota-Duluth, which is grouped in the same category as Eau Claire, faculty at all levels on average make thousands of dollars more than Eau Claire faculty, according to the survey. For example, professors at Duluth made an average of $80,900 in 2004-2005, which is about $14,400 more than professors made at Eau Claire. Duluth’s associate professors made an average of $66,900, which is $400 more than Eau Claire’s full professors.

UW System schools are somewhat stuck on what they can pay faculty because the state legislature ultimately determines all salary increases, Soll said. Additionally, System schools like Eau Claire also are operating under state mandated budget reductions.

A large chunk of the university’s budget already is spent on salaries, so it is difficult to allocate more funds to that area, he said.

Lower salaries have been part of the reason Eau Claire has lost some faculty members and has a somewhat difficult time attracting new faculty, Soll said.

“We lose some really prime candidates,” he said. “And we know there are people out there who don’t apply (because of the salaries).”

Andrew Balas, mathematics professor and chair of the department, said his department began recruiting for many positions earlier this year, but filled only one. Salary didn’t seem to be an issue, he said.

“It was interesting to me that none of the candidates who went elsewhere cited salary as the reason,” he said.

Eau Claire usually offers different selling points, such as the strong reputation of the school and the quality of the students to bring faculty to the school, Soll said.

These selling points may not last forever, Soll said.

“At some point the dollars become more than they can ignore, and that’s where we run into problems,” he said.

Avril Flaten, director of Academic Affairs for Student Senate, said the issue is especially important to students because the quality of their education depends on having high-quality instructors.

“The major thing is keeping the level of quality of education,” she said. “If we’re not paying the top level (salaries), the (amount of) quality professors will go down unless those professors are willing to sacrifice money to come to Eau Claire.”

Having strong professors ultimately helps the university produce stellar students, Flaten said, citing Rhodes Scholar Chauncy Harris as an example.

“It’s a balancing act,” she said. “You need good students and good professors.”

Soll agreed, noting without top quality faculty, top quality students will likely go elsewhere.

“If either part of that (student-faculty) equation flips, the other will likely flip.”