Educators in Nicholls’ College of Business Administration will earn $20,000 in average salaries during the 2007-08 fiscal year more than those holding equivalent positions in the colleges of Arts and Sciences and Education. According to the University’s 2007-08 operating budget, instructors, assistant professors, associate professors and professors in the College of Business Administration earn on average $20,890 more than those in the College of Arts and Sciences and $20,427 more than educators in the College of Education. Because the College of Nursing and Allied Health has no faculty who only hold the title of professor, the college could not be examined.
Individually, instructors in the College of Business Administration average a salary of $48,047, while those in the College of Arts and Sciences earn $36,193, and instructors in the College of Education are paid $36,838. Business Administration’s assistant professors earn $73,121, those in the College of Arts and Sciences earn $45,468. Assistant professors in education earn $47,494. The College of Business Administration’s associate professors earn $80,142 compared to $54,165 in the College of Arts and Sciences and $54,434 in the College of Education. Professors in the College of Business Administration earn $83,005, while those in the College of Arts and Sciences earn $64,930, and professors in the College of Education are paid $63,843.
While all educators take pay cuts when entering academia, the differences in pay among these colleges are no different than the nonacademic workforce where business employees earn more than those working in other professions, Morris Coats, professor of economics, said. Because business professionals can earn more outside of academia than other fields, Coats said they sacrifice more to work in business schools than those working in arts and sciences and education. Therefore, the University must pay more to lure them from their nonacademic jobs, according to Jim Cater, assistant professor of management.
“Because business professors have knowledge of business organizations, we can go out and make more money, whereas those in language arts can’t translate into the corporate world as easily,” Cater said. “It’s possible, but it’s not as likely.”
Carol Britt, director of the School of Fine Arts’ music division, agreed.
“People in arts out in the (non-academic) world make less than those in business, and in order to keep any people in business (schools), they have to offer close to those (salaries) they would make in the public sector,” Britt said.
While Stephen Triche, assistant professor of education, and John Dennis, associate professor of history, both agreed educators in the College of Business Administration earn higher salaries, their reasons differ.
Triche said the higher salaries could be attributed to the money the college brings in through its endowments and sponsorships.
Dennis, who has been teaching for 37 years, said, “I think it’s just been a historical attitude by the American public that English and history and related subjects make less than other areas. It’s been just a basic fact of life for us.”
Upon their hiring, Nicholls’ educators’ salaries are determined using the average salaries by both rank and discipline of college educators who work at schools-like Nicholls-rated in the Southern Region Education Board’s four-year-V division as guidelines, Associate Provost Larry Howell said.
Additionally, salaries are affected through remaining monies – when available – for pay raises. While Howell said the money is mostly allocated as cost-of-living raises, other monies available for merit and equity are distributed to each college’s dean in lump sums based on the college’s faculties’ salaries and total faculty employed.
Then, the dean determines how this money will be distributed.
Although Howell said the University’s assistant professors, associate professors and professors – regardless of their academic disciplines – earn at least the average salaries for their rank, they might not earn as much as peers at other schools working in the same disciplines and holding the same ranks.
According to Dean of the College of Business Administration Shawn Mauldin the salaries of educators in the College of Business Administration meet the average among those in the SREB, but they do not reach the 25th percentile of the Association to Advance Collegiate Schools of Business International, the college’s accrediting agency. Unlike the SREB, however, AACSB does not divide its schools into divisions when averaging salaries.
While some Arts and Sciences’ educators earn at or above the SREB’s average salaries for their rank and discipline, the majority do not, Dean Badiollah Asrabadi of the College of Arts and Sciences said. However, Asrabadi noted progress.
“In recent years, there’s been a…push to reach the SREB average,” Asrabadi said.
The College of Education’s Dean, Deborah Bordelon, said some educators in her college earn the SREB’s average for their discipline and rank while others earn below their averages; as a whole, however, she said the college is near its mark.
For the current fiscal year, the University raised salaries through a five-percent pay increase funded by the Louisiana Legislature and full funding-for the first time since 1981-from the Louisiana Board of Regents’ 100-percent formula funding.
In addition to cost-of-living raises, which were awarded to all University faculty employed before the current fiscal year began, these monies were also used for merit and equity raises. On average, Howell said faculty received a 7.85 percent pay increase.
