H. Stephen Straight always knew that a career in liberal arts would not be a profitable one. Coming from a family of academics, the Binghamton University anthropology professor was familiar with the contribution educators make and the salaries they receive.

But becoming vice provost nine years ago made Straight’s choice a lucrative one, he noted, acknowledging as a professor and administrator that, though liberal arts professors are ‘proud of the contribution they make,’ their salaries are typically low.

Even as BU’s campus and rankings continue to grow, a survey of salaries at the ‘Premier Public University in the Northeast’ shows that the liberal arts are being left behind as professors in other fields are getting the top paychecks.

Data and reports from college salary researchers across the country show an increase in faculty wages overall, but the trend is decidedly in favor of engineering, business and law professors.

According to John Curtis, the director of research at the American Association of University Professors, this shift has been going on for decades, and the gap between disciplines has continued to grow. It’s also set to continue, he said, as universities hire more adjunct professors and offer them shorter contracts.

‘The main concern is the gap between the highest paid faculty and the lowest paid faculty,’ Curtis noted, adding that many professors do not enter the profession for the salary. ‘A person begins to ask whether they’ve made the right choice given the gap.’

And the gap is certainly there.

Data released by College and University Professional Association for Human Resources (CUPA-HR) in February showed the highest and lowest average paid fields at colleges across the country for positions from full professor to instructor. Salaries for professors who teach law, engineering and business are overwhelmingly the highest, while the average salaries for those who teach liberal arts and humanities ‘ like theology, visual and performing arts, history and English literature ‘ are the lowest.

Engineering professors at public institutions make an average of as much as $104,854, while the same research shows that English language and literature professors made an average of $74,557 in 2006-2007.

At BU, the case is no different, says Straight, the vice provost.

‘I wouldn’t characterize [the gap] as a growing trend, but it’s certainly been true for the 38 years that I’ve been here,’ Straight said.

BU’S DIVIDE

Don Blake, the associate dean for Harpur College, said the difference was not necessarily between Harpur and other schools, but merely between those who could bring money from research and those who could not.

‘Everybody knows it,’ he said of the salary differences between the liberal arts and what he called the ‘grant-getters.’ Science and math, Blake added, are the fields that ‘bring in outside dollars’ in Harpur.

‘Salaries in economics are quite a bit higher than elsewhere in liberal arts,’ Blake said.

A look at the highest-paid professors at BU reflects this, as management, business and science are the highest paid.

Subal Kumbhakar, a distinguished professor in Harpur’s economics department who is on leave this semester, is listed with a yearly salary of $225,705. Two faculty members from SOM, another economics professor and a biology professor complete the top five highest paid non-administrative faculty at BU.

‘SUPPLY AND DEMAND’

Salaries for those with a Ph.D. in the humanities, including Straight, seem to be ‘racing to the bottom,’ Straight said. This is a result of market forces that do not offer career options outside academia.

‘It’s disappointing,’ he said.

When colleges have to compete with the private sector for their faculty, Blake said, the humanities get left behind ‘ despite being, what he calls, ‘the cornerstone of any institution.’

Harpur, along with other BU schools, is in the middle of a ‘faculty development campaign,’ he added. Donations from alumni and other private sources are being solicited for creating externally-funded faculty positions which could combat the problems facing the humanities.

‘The limiting factor for us is the budget,’ Blake said.

On a national scale, the number of adjunct professors is rising in order to compensate for lower available salaries, according to studies of higher education hires.

‘There are not a lot of full-time tenure track positions being created,’ Curtis said. ‘[The trend is that] a university isn’t creating any new positions even as enrollment is growing.’

The result, he said, is that universities are turning to more part-time and adjunct professors to keep student to faculty ratios low ‘ a number prospective students and rating guides frequently look to when judging an institution.

In January 2006, BU’s Strategic Plan unveiled their objective to improve the ratio to 1-20 by investing $1 million in new hires in fall 2006.

Limited term contracts for anywhere from six months to three years for instructors and adjuncts are replacing permanent and higher paid positions for liberal arts faculty.

According to Straight, BU has been grappling with the problem of competitive salaries and limited term contracts for some time ‘ what he called ‘doing it on the cheap.’

‘The long-term viability of the field’ and ‘simple economics’ have forced BU to keep in step with its competition who have been avoiding making long-term commitments to liberal arts instructors.

‘It’s a real problem, especially at a research university where you want faculty to be making a contribution beyond teaching,’ Straight said. ‘That’s an area we try actively to combat.’

Even given the disparity between salaries across fields of study, it’s hard to determine whether there are fewer professors eager to enter to teach the humanities, Curtis said.

Straight said he has not seen any decline in the number of people interested in pursuing the life of a ‘scholar’ at BU, and suggested that outside factors, including global trends, could make liberal arts a profitable field once again.

‘One of the beauties of the arts and sciences is that people do it for love rather than money,’ Straight added, noting that he comes from a family of teachers who have ‘accepted the fact that there are other rewards’ to be had.

‘The faculty understand that they’ve made a choice,’ Blake said. ‘They love the lifestyle.’