As the funding of higher education is put under a microscope, University administration often cites personnel cutbacks and restructuring as evidence of the University’s efficiency.

But as many administrators have returned to the faculty, their salaries remain largely unchanged.

According to statistics from the Office of Budget and Planning, the average salary of a University professor is about $108,827, with median salaries for associate professors, assistant professors and instructors ranging from about $43,680 to $78,866.

Kristine Calongne, assistant vice chancellor for communications, said faculty salaries are determined by a variety of factors, including experience, research, part-time and full-time work as well as the number of classes being taught.

Calongne said another variable that must be examined is the installments of the individual’s salary, which could be paid on a nine-month or 12-month basis.

Faculty Senate President Kevin Cope said professors are often paid on a nine-month basis, and the length of the payment period is 12 months for administrators.

“Everyone who is an unclassified employee starts out on a nine-month basis, meaning the totality of one’s salary is paid over a nine-month period,” Cope explained. “When you move into an administrative position, it is extended.”

Cope said there is usually a substantial salary increase when a person moves into a higher administrative role. When an administrator returns to the faculty, Cope said, the individual brings with them that new base salary, or the “de facto pay raise.”

This type of “golden parachute” allows employees to carry about 78 percent of the salary they earned as an administrator down to the faculty level, a wage proportionately higher than other tenured professors.

Former University Provost Astrid Merget is just one example. Merget stepped down from her provost position in June to return to the E.J. Ourso College of Business’ Public Administration Institute.

Merget’s current salary, which was reduced to a nine-month basis after her switch, is $212,732 and is generated solely on state funds.

Merget was unavailable for comment from Sept. 28 to Nov. 30, stating only that her current status was serving the University as an “academic” and a “scholar.”

“Dr. Merget is doing research and writing this semester in preparation for the classes she will teach in the spring,” College of Business Dean Eli Jones said in an e-mail. “She is also serving on the college’s promotion and tenure committee, which is time consuming.”

F. Neil Mathews also made the switch from vice chancellor for Student Life and Academic Services in 2009 to return to the College of Education, where he currently teaches.

Mathews’ current salary is $153,040 and is also paid by state funds. He holds no outside executive duties.

Other administrators to step down from their positions include Charles “Chuck” Wilson and Stacia Haynie, who both retired their careers as vice provosts in the Office of Academic Affairs.

Wilson left Academic Affairs earlier this semester to focus on the Louisiana Sea Grant College Program and his classes in the Department of Oceanography and Coastal Sciences, leaving his duties to Jane Cassidy.

Haynie announced her decision to step down last week and will formally return to the Department of Political Science in January 2011 to teach introduction to American government and judicial process courses.

“Teaching is such a privilege, and I missed it immensely,” Haynie said Tuesday. “I hope I’ll be a much better professor with the administrative experience I’ve enjoyed.”

Haynie said she also hopes to complete several research projects and two book projects that have been on hold. When asked if she would be interested in continuing some administrative duties on a part-time basis, she said it has been “an honor and a privilege to work with Chancellor Martin” and continuing to do so would be “lagniappe.”

Personnel documents have not yet been finalized for Wilson or Haynie.

“As far as duties go, if a person resigns, they need to have breathing room, but not semester after semester,” Cope said.

Cope said the administration, in most cases, keeps resignations quiet, and what may be the “speediest” solution is not always the cheapest.

“This strikes us as unfair, but the entire selection process [for administrative positions] is unfair,” he said, referring to the hiring of search firms and outside “celebrity” candidates that may not be qualified. “This is just plain old [King’s] Court behavior.”