LSU professors have higher salaries than the national university average, but pay lags behind when compared with peer schools. Insidehighered.com recently published an annual report boasting a 4 percent increase in the average salaries of professors nationwide, but many agree that 4 percent is not enough for LSU. Robert Kuhn, associate vice chancellor of Budget and Planning, said LSU has given professors about a 4 percent raise during eight out of the past nine years. Full professors in LSU’s School of Architecture earn an average of $104,034 as of the 2007-2008 academic year. The national average lags behind by about $10,000 at $93,591. Full professors in the LSU College of Engineering earn an average of $119,291. The national average of engineering professors is $107,134, about $12,000 less. But he said 4 percent is not enough for the University to compete with its regional peers. He said the Louisiana Board of Regents and state officials look at other schools in the Southern Regional Education Board, an organization that includes other southern schools such as Auburn University and the University of Florida to determine its peers. “What we reported to the state in our request for the current year is that we felt that in the South, we were approximately 6 to 7 percent behind our peers,” Kuhn said. But despite being behind our peers, LSU is able to successfully recruit, retain and satisfy our professors, Kuhn said. “You basically have to pay market price,” he said. “Our assistant professors are coming in at market, or we would not be able to hire them.” He said what happens after a professor’s first year at the LSU determines where his salary falls in comparison to the average both regionally and nationally. LSU professors did not get a raise because of Hurricane Katrina. Kuhn cited the 2004-2005 school year as a year that contributed to LSU lagging behind the average in the South. “Hopefully, it’s not all about salary, it’s the working environment, the opportunities, the college you’re working with, the infrastructure, whatever their field is important to them as well,” he said. “I would say faculty are very interested in salary, but that’s not the only thing that’s important to them.” But some faculty members have painted an entirely different picture. One LSU professor who wanted to remain unidentified said LSU professors have to meet unrealistic expectations. “Faculty are expected to produce Harvard-caliber research, or close to it, for tenure without anything near Harvard caliber resources,” he said. Jon Cogburn, philosophy professor, said he has done extensive studies on professors’ salaries. “I did research on the median income at philosophy departments in all United States universities and found that the median income at LSU for all levels was $15,000 below the national median,” he said in an e-mail. Cogburn compared LSU to Texas A&M University. He said Texas has, for the past 15 years, built up their previously lacking humanities and become “a flagship research university with a great national reputation.” He said LSU, on the other hand, attempts to increase prestige by investing more heavily in strong departments, such as biology and engineering, rather than in humanities. LSU currently recruits assistant professors for the engineering department at an average of $72,734. On the contrary, LSU currently recruits assistant professors in communications at an average of $51,401. “A university with few spots of excellence do not trickle down to the rest of the university,” Cogburn said. “If anything, it is much harder to get good faculty in the excellent departments because the people would rather be surrounded by competence and good students.”
—-Contact Lindsey Meaux at [email protected]