For the second consecutive year, Syracuse University has declined to provide the data and information used in compiling the Committee Z Report — a public record of the average faculty member’s salary in each school and college at the university.

Over the past 50 years, SU has provided a comprehensive list of faculty members identified only by their SUID numbers — not their names — with each faculty member’s annual salary. The reports included breakdowns of the faculty salaries by rank, gender and department.

However, for the first time since creating the faculty salary surveys, SU did not provide the American Association of University Professors — the organization that compiles the annual reports — with the detailed information needed to complete the Committee Z Report for the 2013-14 academic year.

Kevin Quinn, senior vice president for public affairs at SU, said in an email that this decision was based upon “the need to carefully review the legal landscape regarding the sharing of compensation data among comparable universities.

Quinn added that Chancellor Kent Syverud, who was previously a law school dean, has been very aware of antitrust action brought by the United States Department of Justice regarding similar sharing of law school faculty salaries among law school deans.

Pat Cihon, president of SU’s chapter of AAUP, said the published Committee Z Report helps people get an idea of how SU’s faculty members and their salaries compare to those at universities across the nation.

He added that the report is also useful for those potentially seeking jobs at SU to know how much an average faculty member earns each year.

In the 2014-15 national survey — done by AAUP’s national chapter — SU’s data shows that full-time professors make an average of $127,700 annually. Associate professors make an average of $94,600, assistant professors typically make $76,500 and instructors at SU make an average of $67,700.

For the 2014-15 academic year, SU originally agreed to once again share data for both the local and national chapters of AAUP to complete their annual reports. However, the university has now decided not to provide additional data for the local report.

Cihon, who is also a professor of law and public policy at SU, said it wasn’t worthwhile to update the report since the information that SU provided to its local chapter of AAUP was the same information the university gave AAUP at a national level.

“It makes a mockery of the information we get because it is the same as what’s in the national survey,” Cihon said.

Cihon said he was not sure who made the final decision to not share the information for the local report, but added that he has written several letters to Syverud in an attempt to bring attention to this issue.

In his letters to Syverud, Cihon said he mentioned that one of the chancellor’s goals is to make SU more open and transparent and that declining to release the information for the local AAUP report would counteract that goal.

Syverud replied to Cihon’s letters saying that he would try to share the information for the report, but currently, Cihon said, the university has not done so.

“The chancellor talks about governance and transparency but it would be more meaningful if he backed up his words with action,” Cihon said. “You’re saying one thing, but what you’re actually doing is a whole other thing.”

In the future, Cihon said he hopes to meet in-person with Syverud to further discuss this issue so that the local survey information can be made public.

Published on May 9, 2015 at 5:41 pm

Contact Sara: smswann@syr.edu | @saramswann