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Since the higher education started being affected by severe budget cuts, local universities and colleges have seen cuts in faculty salaries. These cuts continue and in fact have stagnated with no indication of being revised.

This means that top researchers and faculty are no more going to find universities and colleges competitive. This was revealed in the annual faculty salary survey conducted by the American Association of University Professors spanning 1300 schools. The survey shows the average faculty salary in these schools including salary of the assistance professors and instructors.

Bottom line through the country has been severely affected by a difficult economy and budget cuts according to the data collected by this organization. Centenary College and LSUS are the two local four year schools that participated in this survey.

According to the Research and Public Policy director of this national organization John Curtis, the salary has not really gone down. They have simply stagnated. If at all we find any small increases, they are because of the movement of professors up in the rank or relocation to a new campus.

Wherever possible, universities and colleges are always on the lookout for ways to save especially in today’s tough economic conditions. The first and obvious area they target is salaries apart from eliminating open positions. This in turn results in increased work load for existing faculty, according to Curtis. 

At LSUS, it was way back in 2007 that professors last received a raise in their salaries says the university’s Provost and Vice Chancellor for Academic Affairs Paul Sisson. Since then, faculty has only been asked to take on more work load and yet to get any raise. This inevitably led to a drop in morale. He says that something must be done at the earliest to enhance their morale and retain them.

The Centenary College faces a similar situation. The college cut many majors last year and has faced severe financial crisis for quite some time. In spite of so many challenges, the fact remains that as compared to the public colleges, private colleges have bounced back.

This is because state budgets control the financial futures of the public colleges, says Curtis. It is easier for private colleges to diversify their streams of funding that predominantly depend on endowments and this in turn makes it easier for them to bounce back. For instance, refinancing its debts, Centenary has been able to allocate around $5 million for college renovations.

According to Curtis, certain areas are affected more even though there is stagnation in faculty salaries. South has been the worst affected maybe due to uneven distribution of economic impact, says Curtis.

The organization which also surveyed colleges in the South found that Louisiana is a state where salary of four year college professors is way below the state average. This consequently makes this state least competitive for top researchers and prime professors. This is also one of the reasons why many quality faculties are leaving the state.

So, where is the solution to this problem? In the interest of the quality of higher education in our country, it is imperative to put our heads together and arrive at a solution soon.