College Professor Rankings In Texas Spark National Debate

For years, state legislators, parents, and even his own boss had been hectoring Frank Ashley, the vice chancellor of academic affairs for the Texas A&M University System, to tell them whether his highest paid professors were worth their often fat paychecks.

Ashley responded with a spreadsheet that listed each of his faculty members according to how much money they made or lost for the university.

The study calculated an individual professor's "revenue" based on the tuition he or she brought to the school -- a product of the number of students taught -- and the amount of research awards and grants he or she obtained, among other factors. The greater the number of classes and students taught, the greater the revenue. If a professor's annual salary was lower than the amount of revenue generated, it was black. Otherwise, it was red.

Of the 50 highest compensated faculty members, only five appeared to be in the black and earning their keep. The rest were crimson.

Although the study, still in draft-mode, was meant for internal use only and, by Ashley's own admission, deeply flawed, the Texas A&M University System was forced to release the 265-page document on its own website after The Eagle, a local newspaper, filed an open records request.

The data revealed, for example, that while one faculty member at Texas A&M earned more than $500,000 each year, the average counterpart at its College Station campus made around $120,000.

The Texas A&M University System removed the spreadsheet from its website within days, after discovering that much of the data was found to be inaccurate. It is no longer available. (Click here to download the spreadsheet, provided courtesy of the Center for College Affordability and Productivity.)

Ashley's spreadsheet was, of course, a touchstone for many of the anxieties that riddle the ongoing debate around higher education reform. Academia is clubby, professors' performances hard to gauge, and parents and students can easily become financially indentured in their quest for a small piece of the American Dream.

And in Texas, like everywhere else, these issues have hardly disappeared. Similar to most states, Texas has weathered enormous budget cuts. Texas A&M, like other public institutions, has been especially hard hit, with as much as 15 percent, or $32 million, sliced from its budget in recent years. According to Jason Cook, Texas A&M's spokesman, the university stands to lose an additional $53 million in state funds over the next two years.

With the university forced to further cinch an already tight belt, Ashley, as if on cue, is at it again. Despite his detractors, he has assembled a second appraisal of professor productivity, using data from the current academic year. It's a move he predicts other schools, particularly in Texas, are likely to follow.

"With the economy where it is right now, everyone wants to make sure they're getting the most out of what they're paying for," says Ashley, who spent much of the last month finalizing the data, double and triple checking for any miscalculations. Of prior criticism, Ashley is the first to admit that the original spreadsheet was nothing if not a work in progress. He's hoping for a second shot at redemption.

Its fate now rests with the school's 10-person board of regents, who could opt to make it public. Or, as was the case last fall, an open records request may force its release. Recently elected board chairman Richard A. Box calls such an outcome "almost inescapable, since anyone can request it and the information exists in the public domain."

Whether a matter of days or weeks until the information is again made public, Ashley holds firm. "There's this widespread belief that the professoriate is a nice job," he says. "We want to make sure that we're being transparent and good stewards of the money that taxpayers provide for us."

LIES, DAMN LIES, AND STATISTICS

Texas Governor Rick Perry and the Texas Public Policy Foundation, an Austin-based conservative think tank, have come out in favor of Ashley's metric.

But University of Texas President William Powers Jr. -- A&M's arch rival -- remains unconvinced Ashley has proven anything. He's also opposed to the use of such bean counting at his Austin campus.

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Comments

[horsedoc]

03:22 PM on 04/19/2011

Looking over the A&M spreadsheet of salaries and i know of the top 2 paid faculty in my old department have left for other jobs (I graduted from A&M). Its sad to see state politics start to destroy my alma matter. They will start to bleed faculty to other top universities, not just in the US but overseas as well. I suspect you will see a revearsal of these 'policies' but the damage is done.

I spend roughly 60+ hours a week in my faculty job, teaching, doing research, writing grants, writing research articles, revieiwing grants, reviewing research articles, reading, some more reading. I take home my 'worry sack' every night and pull something out in the evening. I love what I do and its the price I pay, but I know in the private sector I could make probably $50k more a year and have half the headaches. Just the price we pay in our so-called 'ivory towers'.

[lcr999]

05:14 PM on 04/11/2011

There is no such thing as a typical "college professor". The arts are much different than the sciences and enginneering. And more significantly, there is a huge difference between a major research university and a 4 yr liberal arts college....not only in pay, but the whole job description. Few people really understand what research universities do, what the responsibilities of a professor at research university are, and who pays for it. And of course community colleges are a whole another thing as well.

[logic-a-go-go]

10:35 PM on 04/10/2011

The business model will never, ever fit the education model, so let's just stop this absurd talk now.

[BAMUDA]

01:26 PM on 04/09/2011

Here I am, working all weekend, grading papers, preparing class discussions, writing countless letters of recommendations, advising young people about their personal and professional futures, driving my meager salary down to that of a grocery bagger with no training or education.

I made more money 30 years ago working in restaurants, but I didn't change young people's lives every day in an enduring and meaningful way. I didn't train young people to think critically, develop rigor in their thought, and problem solving skills that they will put to use helping to make the world better for the rest of their lives.

These assessments are absurd on their face, and the creator even admitted that it is a deeply flawed analysis. But then, objectivity in education seems hard to come by in Texas these days.

[REDSTATEREFUGEE]

04:03 PM on 04/09/2011

X 55 , Bamuda......Thanks for reminding me that I am not the only prof ( adjunct, in my case ), grading four sets of papers @ about five hours each x 4 non-teaching days. As you noted, grading is a burden, but still does not include class prep time. Many non-academic "civilians" believe that we instructors simply enter the classroom, BS for a given amount of time, and then retire to a local Starbucks to sip coffee for the remainder of the day.

Too, as you remarked, we have to deal with student communications-----in person and over the Internet--- and even adjuncts are required in our system to attend faculty meetings and participate in committee work.

In my case, here in California, I have become accustomed to the overwork and underpayment as part of the academic landscape. What I am now terrified of is the prospect of over fifty percent of my course load vanishing in the fall semester. Besides caring for my own self-interest, I feel for the 140,000 students, mostly freshmen aspirants, who will be turned away from just the state community college system, not counting CSU and UC institutions....

[reasonshouldrule]

07:14 PM on 04/10/2011

Fanned and faved. Very good post. So many people--even former students--do not understand how much work it is to teach. Your post is informative, and I hope lots of people read it.

[reasonshouldrule]

07:13 PM on 04/10/2011

Fanned and fave, bamuda, for your dedication and contribution to educating people. Some of the people on this thread could use a little education, imo.

[spoonbill1963]

01:35 PM on 04/08/2011

Professors are way overpaid. I think we all know that but of course the professors among you would never admit to it. What higher education needs is to have more take charge guys running the show. You know, similar to a company CEO. Someone to kick a little butt and get more than a puny 12 hours of teaching time out of each professor. I've run two very successful businesses and I would be willing to take on a "kick butt" position. I might even do it for free.

[zSpin2001]

05:09 PM on 04/08/2011

Nonsense. I too started many kick but successful businesses when I was younger, but my comment to you would be "Go mow lawns somewhere else."

[rezna]

07:49 PM on 04/08/2011

Sorry spoonbill, you don't know what you're talking about.

I am the office manager for a department at the local university with 6,000 students. We are meager and my department has 6 full time professors. 4 of them have tenure, 2 of them are associate profs. They work at least 60 hours a week during the school year, not to mention grading papers at home during their "free" time, concerts they have to run and perform with their students without any loading represented, advising students on what classes they should take to graduate... all of them are here at school *all day long*, sometimes going home as late as 7 or 8 pm depending on their rehearsal schedule. These guys are barely making it financially and should be paid much, much more for what they are doing. Now, take in all of that, and add to it the amount of counseling they do for these students in their personal lives on a daily basis. It can become very taxing and difficult. These teachers really appreciate their time off in the Summer, its their only chance to unwind and take a breather, all the while preparing for their next year's curriculum..

[REDSTATEREFUGEE]

01:19 PM on 04/08/2011

If the metrics cited in the article above are even close to being valid, then Huffposters who are not instructional staff in higher education need to know that community colleges routinely use adjunct professors for their basic education courses, like developmental and freshman composition.

These adjuncts, like myself, can comprise up to as much as 50% of the faculty, but we make approximately 50% of the salary per credit hour. Too, in comparison with the Texas A & M average salary cited, we make around 40% of that amount for a full time load.

I am not whining about salary disparities. In fact, I considered myself fortunate to have escaped the California state deficit reduction efforts with only one-third of my fall 2011 salary being removed. Now, thanks to Republican recalcitrance on a tax extension, it looks as if I will lose another one-fourth of my teaching pay, effectively meaning that I will have to be searching for other jobs to help survive.

" Welcome to Wal-Mart, little Johnny. Here's your happy face sticker."

[zSpin2001]

05:11 PM on 04/08/2011

I would agree with this 100%, and we have a hard time finding good adjuncts to work with us.

[rezna]

07:51 PM on 04/08/2011

70% of our department's needs are met by adjuncts, some with DMA degrees making around a fifth of what they should be.

[REDSTATEREFUGEE]

03:48 PM on 04/09/2011

X 115 , Rezna....OMG.....whenever I want to have a pity party for my own situation, someone reminds me that others have it much worse. Adjuncts are unfairly paid and, in many cases, overworked. Commonly, they are forced to take on more than a full load in order to make ends meet, and teach lower division courses, where, in composition, for example, enormous amounts of grading ( 8,000 words per semester per student required ) frequently absorbs most free time.

Even with the above work environment, I did not feel abused and felt fortunate to at least have employment. Now, the prospect of losing 55% of my net income beginning in August 2011 is almost more than I can bear. As they used to say about being a minority worker in the United States, " Last hired, first fired."

[Angela Hausman]

12:37 PM on 04/08/2011

I think a better question would be how much highly paid administrators contribute to the bottom line. Don't forget, even those high paid faculty still produced revenue. And the one earning the highest salaries likely contribute in other ways to build the University brand through academic publications, conference appearances, and mentions in the media. In contrast, many administrators contribute little to the brand OR to bringing in tuition either directly or indirectly.

[mcap56]

11:53 AM on 04/08/2011

sorry...my post repeated part of itself.....

[mcap56]

11:40 AM on 04/08/2011

This is completely ridiculous. Another focus on the wrong people. I am a professor at a small private college. I work very hard but love my job and consider it to be a privilege. Although I am lucky, part of my path here involved two Master’s degrees and a PhD. I have also had to work tirelessly outside of class to publish and always put my best into my classes. Many in academia are not as fortunate. Many never get full time positions and few get tenure these days. It's a difficult career. I am also unsure of what ivory tower people conjure in their heads but my classes are formally evaluated by every student in every class. These evaluations are reviewed by the chair and dean. The program is also notified regularly about direct costs and program revenues. There are alerts and actions taken when these are out of balance. My colleagues at public institutions have similar situations. Why would people get mad about this? Bankers and executives regularly throw themselves bonuses that are higher (exponentially) than a few years salary for me. This occurs when performance is good or bad. I guess any teacher is now the enemy.
My teaching is reviewed by students, every class, every term. My chair and dean review these evaluations. My program must bring in a certain margin over direct costs or we go on alert.

[reasonshouldrule]

07:18 PM on 04/10/2011

Excellent post and informative. So many people have such erroneous opinions about professors, and many of those won't even look at the facts or listen to people who know them.

[logic-a-go-go]

10:39 PM on 04/10/2011

I think those who are bringing up this non-issue are trying to detract from the obscene CEO salaries in the U.S.

[JustinP213]

10:47 AM on 04/08/2011

Most teachers from K-graduate school are overpaid. Yes, that's a sweeping comment, but I feel strongly about that. I also think almost ALL CEOs and sports players are overpaid. People that work in retail and certain other sectors are underpaid. And, for the record, I'm a plaintiffs' side employment lawyer.

[spoonbill1963]

01:28 PM on 04/08/2011

I totally agree with you.

[reasonshouldrule]

07:19 PM on 04/10/2011

Well, you have a right to your opinion, but it is one not based on facts, unfortunately.

[Demarcus Jackson]

10:03 AM on 04/08/2011

I don't know whether these professor earn their keep or not, but I believe I do and I wish I was paid nearly as good as some of the lowest paid professors on that spreadsheet. I teach at a fine community college in Tennessee. I work very hard to educate my students, complete my administrative duties, attend special student events, attend countless committee meetings, submit all reports before the deadline, and continue my own personal studies toward my doctorate.

[reasonshouldrule]

07:21 PM on 04/10/2011

Nobody works harder than those who teach at community colleges. Good luck to you! At some point, you may end up fairly paid at a major university.

[SangZe]

09:47 AM on 04/08/2011

More bullshit attacks on higher education. I got out of the game after it became very clear I'd never earn more than an apprentice bus driver in New Jersey despite more than two decades of teaching and multiple graduate degrees. During my tenure, I often worked 60 or more hours per week. Students thought professors were available at their bidding 24/7. Pay was so crappy that unlike politicians, I was forced to work in the summers. I regret going into teaching in the U.S., and advise against it. One can do much better and have respect as well in other countries.

[Georgianna]

08:16 AM on 04/08/2011

I work at SUNY. Most of the growth in overhead at colleges and universities is on the support services side of the house.

I'm curious. Will there be an effort to bring the salaries of college coaches and college administrators in line with the salaries of faculty?

We are, afterall, academic institutions.

[jjmcg21]

07:41 AM on 04/08/2011

I am an associate professor of nursing. As important as the education of nurses is to this country, I will sadly always be a professor in the red. Why? Accreditation standards require 1 instructor per 10 students. Most programs in health care are the same. We understand our programs cost a great deal more money per student than other programs, such as English or history were 1 instructor can teach a class of several hundred students. Unfortunately, law makers don't see the need to expand nursing programs at this time due to the costs, even in spite of huge nursing shortages.

[reasonshouldrule]

07:23 PM on 04/10/2011

Yes, you have highlighted the problem with evaluating teachers and their courses on a bottom line basis. This is education. It is NOT a business. Typical business practices do not work here. I wish more people understood that.