GW’s tenured, full-time professors earn more than the national average, according to a salary study undertaken by the American Association of University Professors that examined more than 5,000 universities and colleges. When comparing the AAUP’s numbers with those cited by Faculty Senate Fiscal Planning and Budget Committee Chairman William Griffith, though, disturbing disparities become clear. A wide gap exists between professors depending upon what subject they teach. The University should work to correct this problem and should spend more money attracting top faculty to GW. Plus, with a high cost of living in the D.C. region further eroding the real value of professors’ salaries, GW must allocate more resources to the professors who accomplish the University’s academic mission.
Administrators often eagerly emphasize their goal of improving GW’s standing in the academic community, but often their methodology for doing so seems flawed. Too often money is spent erecting buildings rather than improving the academic offerings of the institution, which are arguably the reason so many find themselves here in Foggy Bottom. While new facilities are sorely needed – the overcrowding students see on campus cannot be overstated – these buildings must not come at the expense of a first-rate faculty.
Taken as a whole, GW’s highest-ranking professors earn $5,000 more than the national average, but the real value of those salaries are swallowed up by Washington’s high cost of living. Compound that extra expense with the lower salaries Columbian School of Arts and Sciences professors take home – some earn just half the amount paid to a law professor – and the likelihood of GW attracting top faculty members shrinks as fast as a professor’s checking balance. Examined against professors at other universities, Columbian School faculty average $8,000 less than their peers, and the Graduate School of Education and Human Development pays professors $11,520 less than the national average.
For GW to become comparable to the venerated Ivy League schools – the benchmark against which prospective students and their parents measure a university’s credentials – and to continue to attract professors who are preeminent in their fields, GW must correct its salary disparities. If students really are here to learn, the University should devote more of its resources to adequately compensate the professors who conduct GW’s most important work: teaching.
