Stephanie Hensley in the ODE:
For professors at the University of Oregon, salaries are notably lower than those of their peers at other universities. The average annual salary of a full professor at the UO is $139,800, whereas the American Association of Universities averages $174,300. …
Since joining the University of Oregon in March 2023, President John Karl Scholz has received an annual base salary of $725,000 over a five-year period. In comparison, President Barbara Wilson of the University of Iowa, which has been a member of the Big 10 conference since 1899, has received an annual salary of $700,000 following several pay raises since 2022. President Jay Rothman of the University of Wisconsin-Madison, another Big 10 university, receives a base salary of $550,000. [UOM: Note, however, that at Madison the boss is the Chancellor, not the Pres.]
In the bad old days before the union, there was actually a plan to raise faculty salaries. This was under Pres Dave Frohnmayer. Does anyone still remember? After Frohnmayer retired, Pres “The Hat” Lariviere sort of continued this until he got fired for it. That was long long ago and the salaries now are as bad as ever. Obviously not a priority of the Board. The Union? I guess the faculty doesn’t really count now.
Lariviere first gave raises to Deans, etc., including the B school newly-hired dean who was hired at market rates. That dean was given a ~5% boost along with his assoc. deans. Faculty, not a penny. And that dean was not renewed.
139,800?? Hahahaha
I’m a full prof in the arts and I make an abysmal fraction of that. You all are looking outward but the salary within parts of the uo severely lacks equity. Nobody gives a flying f*** about us. Not the union, not our fellow faculty in other disciplines, certainly not admins.
I hear that frustration. I’m happy to chat with you about the union’s efforts for equity in this round of bargaining if you’re interested.
UOM, did you get my comment about past efforts to raise faculty salaries?
No
Honest Uncle Bernie, I worked for 15 years at the University before unionization and was completely unaware of these plans to raise salaries. The union is pushing for significant salary increases. Now, as in the past, the only way that is going to happen is if faculty step up and show their support and apply pressure. Such a show of support means more than on-line hand-wringing. Administration will not acquiesce to union demands without tangible demonstrations of faculty support. If you are not ready to do that, blame yourself and colleagues that are not prepared to do anything on their own behalf.
I tried to dig up some info from long ago. Google on and you’ll get some links. Here is one of them:
https://www.dailyemerald.com/archives/low-faculty-pay-means-less-faculty-stay-at-uo/article_ac64f99f-6d76-5dc0-8701-afbdc8f764eb.html
It started about 1999 or 2000. There were reports on progress up until at least near the end of Frohnmayer’s long time as UO president.
It was a program instigated by the UO Senate in cooperation with the top UO administration. I believe they were making progress to raising pay to competitive levels, though things got jammed by recession, Frohnmayer’s departure, then The Hat Lariviere getting fired — mainly for giving supposedly outsize raises.
I don’t think any real progress has been made since then — UO is about as far behind now as it was 25 years ago. It obviously is not a priority of the UO trustees or administration. If it is a priority of the union — which is a relatively recent innovation — there don’t seem to be much in the way of results.
What I remember was Frohnmayer getting a $150K raise – in secret – from OUS while we got nothing. It took me months to get the public records and it was the main reason I started this blog. Then in 2009 he tried to convince the faculty to take voluntary pay-cuts – at the same time he was negotiating with OUS Chancellor Pernsteiner for a fat retirement deal for himself. (Ryan Hagemann, the OUS attorney who tried to hide the documents on that, was recently hired by Kevin Reed to work for UO.) The State audited Frohnmayer at my instigation and made him pay back some money. He claimed he didn’t know he’d been overpaid and blamed his wife for cashing the checks. Frohnmayer threatened to sue me for defamation when I blogged about it: https://uomatters.com/2011/06/frohnmayer-threatens-defamation-suit.html He was bluffing. After he retired from UO he worked as a tobacco lobbyist for Philip Morris and for BP, for whom he illegally lobbied the state legislature to prevent unpaid damages from class action lawsuits to be used for legal aid for the poor. https://uomatters.com/2014/12/tobacco-lawyer-and-oil-company-lobbyist-lawyer-dave-frohnmayer-quoted-in-the-nyt.html What a guy.
Ah, yes, he always spoke fondly of you! My own relations with him were generally kind of cool, but not disdainful.
I will maintain that progress on faculty salaries was made back then. The only time that has ever happened, to my knowledge. I’m sure it has been forgotten by all but a few old-timers. If somebody wanted to, they could dig the relevant files out of what, probably University Senate records.