UI sets aside $4.8 million for faculty raises next year

Jeff Charis-Carlson
Press Citizen

University of Iowa leaders announced this week that they plan to set aside nearly $5 million next year to increase salary for faculty members across campus.

The announcement comes as university officials are figuring out how to absorb a second year of cuts in state funding and are preparing a five-year strategy for tuition increases. The Iowa Board of Regents earlier this month approved tuition hikes at all three of Iowa's public universities.

A Herky sculpture stands near the Old Capitol on the University of Iowa Campus.

Throughout his 19 months as UI president, Bruce Harreld has called for faculty vitality programs that would help raise the average of full-time tenure-track faculty to 95 percent of the median of the university’s peer group.

The $4,845,833 being devoted to raising faculty pay, UI officials said, will help to close the gap. The amount represents about 29 percent of the $16.5 million the newly approved tuition rates are expected to provide UI.

The bulk of the money, $3.2 million, will go to the UI College of Liberal Arts and Sciences. With 15,187 undergraduate and 1,800 graduate students last semester, the college's enrollment makes up more than half of the university's student body.

Previous coverage:

The remainder of the money will be divided as follows: College of Business, $501,536; College of Dentistry, $102,240; College of Engineering, $216,373; College of Law, $67,386; College of Medicine, $92,605; College of Nursing, $149,583; College of Pharmacy, $290,721; College of Public Health, $188,046; and Graduate College, $55,761.

The College of Education will the only college on campus not receiving additional funding.

The Office of the Provost determined the amounts per college by analyzing faculty salary data from the American Association of Universities, according to information released Thursday by the university. Each college will allocate funds based on its own metrics.

"Continuing the collaborative, values-based budget process initiated last year, university leadership has given the colleges the flexibility to provide increases to other valued members of the faculty, including clinical and non-tenure track faculty, based on unique needs and priorities," the university release states.

The AAUP survey lists the average salary for UI faculty as $138,300 for full professors, $96,100 for associate professors, $84,300 for assistant professors and $62,600 for instructors. The averages vary across college and discipline.

Collegiate and administrative leaders will be asked to complete and submit initial unit budgets by the end of June. The university will submit its budget to the Iowa Board of Regents in July.

Reach Jeff Charis-Carlson at jcharisc@press-citizen.com or 319-887-5435. Follow him on Twitter: @JeffCharis.