Serving the GW Community since 1904

The GW Hatchet

AN INDEPENDENT STUDENT NEWSPAPER SERVING THE GW COMMUNITY SINCE 1904

The GW Hatchet

Serving the GW Community since 1904

The GW Hatchet

NEWSLETTER
Sign up for our twice-weekly newsletter!

Officials name senior vice president, chief of staff
By Fiona Riley, Assistant News Editor • March 26, 2024

Staff editorial: Pay scale

Although salaries are only a part of what attracts professors to GW, administrators should pay more attention to what other schools are paying professors. Ranked 10th out of 14 market basket schools, GW is far from being where it could be.

With GW in the middle of a massive expansion of its facilities, resources are devoted mostly to where they are needed most – construction. Raising faculty salaries could easily push tuition to higher levels. It is fair to say students are already upset enough about next year’s 4.9 percent tuition hikes.

While improvement across the board will surely take time, the Columbian College of Arts and Sciences and the Graduate School of Education and Human Development deserve immediate attention. These two schools lag behind the American Association of University Professors 60th percentile standard for average school salaries, while GW looks to push other schools to the 80th percentile.

Other schools within GW like the School of Business and Public Management and the Elliott School of International Affairs exceed the 60th percentile for average salaries. CCAS and GSEHD should exceed it, too. Good professors are hard enough to attract, so administrators should rely less on non-monetary factors like GW’s location more on monetary compensation.

New York University topped the Chronicle of Higher Education’s list, with Emory, Georgetown, Washington and Boston universities all topping GW, respectively.

GW may be unable to solve the salary problem now because much of the University’s resources have been allocated elsewhere. But better pay, when juxtaposed with all the other attractive elements of coming to D.C. to teach, attracts better teachers and entices those already on the University’s payroll to stay put.

With the exception of medical professors from the Graduate School of Public Health and Health Sciences, GW administrators make more money than the highest faculty salaries on campus. At a time when our University’s president is among the nation’s highest paid, it’s time our professors get more of the cut.

More to Discover
Donate to The GW Hatchet