BELLEFONTE — Pennsylvania Lt. Gov. Jim Cawley opened a fresh line of criticism about Penn State on Tuesday, underscoring faculty pay rates there and at other state-related universities.
A graduate of Temple University, Cawley said the state-related institutions ‘have a place in my heart. But the simple fact is that private professors — at private institutions — are making on average $10,000 less a year than those at the four state-related’ universities.
Cawley was in Bellefonte on Tuesday to meet with the Centre County Natural Gas Task Force, said his communications director, Chad Saylor.
At a late-morning press conference, though, local reporters veered toward the subject of higher education, as well. Gov. Tom Corbett’s proposed budget would cut about half of the state’s funding for higher education, including for the state-related universities: Temple, Penn State, the University of Pittsburgh and Lincoln University.
Cawley reiterated statements made earlier by Corbett, saying that the reduction would amount to just four percent of Penn State’s overall annual expenses. And he noted the university’s resulting decision to pause new-construction planning, plus its discussion of potential tuition increases and possible Commonwealth Campus closures.
‘I struggle to understand how a four percent cut has that great an impact across the entire enterprise of a particular university,’ Cawley said.
In public appearances, Penn State President Graham Spanier has said that many of the university’s dedicated revenue streams — including some $800 million in annual research grants, more than $1 billion in annual medical-service payments and millions in donor-directed endowment income — cannot be redirected to other functions. The university relies heavily on its state appropriations to offset the expense of educating in-state students, and to pay for Cooperative Extension and agricultural research, Spanier has said.
The Corbett proposal would amount to a reduction of nearly 20 percent in Penn State’s general-education and instructional budgets, he has said.
But Saylor, reached later Tuesday, said ‘there’s no focus on controlling costs up there’ at Penn State. He emphasized that Penn State tuition rates have more than doubled in the past decade, a period during which the state has delivered $3.5 billion to the university.
‘It seems like they increase tuition whether they get state funding or not,’ Saylor said.
He said Cawley brings up statistics like the faculty-pay comparison because ‘costs keep going up and up.’
According to data from the governor’s budget office, Saylor said, full-time professors at private colleges and universities in Pennsylvania make an average of $90,378 a year.
Those at the state-related universities make an average of $97,118, the data show. And in the 14-school State System of Higher Education, including nearby Lock Haven University, the reported average is $100,029.
At Penn State alone, a one-year salary freeze for all employees would save an estimated $25 million to $30 million in the coming budget year, Saylor said. He underscored that Corbett has already encouraged a yearlong salary freeze for public-grade-school teachers as Pennsylvania copes with a $4 billion deficit.
Reached Tuesday afternoon, Penn State spokeswoman Lisa Powers said the university is coming off a year of system-wide salary freezes — including one for Spanier.
Spanier has ‘again talked about salary freezes in addition to layoffs and programmatic cuts’ as the university weighs possible budget scenarios, she said.
Tuition increases also are a possibility, though university administrators have said they won’t ask students to shoulder the brunt of the potential new hardships.
‘Everything is on the table,’ Powers said. ‘I think it’s a little premature to say we’re refusing or won’t do some of these things (such as salary freezes and programmatic cuts) — because we have in the past. If the proposal necessitates, we will do it again.’
Months ago, the university began to undertake a Core Council-led process to identify some $10 million in permanent cost savings throughout its system. That process is ongoing.
As for faculty pay rates, Powers said ‘the private institutions that (the governor’s budget office) may be comparing us to may not be the ones … that we consider our peers.’
She said Penn State considers its peer institutions to be those in the Association of American Universities. Those are the large, substantially research-oriented schools that ‘we compete with for our faculty,’ Powers said.
‘We’ve been losing on that end because private (schools) have more resources — and have for probably the last decade or more — to offer faculty members at doctoral-, research-granting institutions,’ she said.
She said comparing Penn State to non-AAU institutions is ‘an apples-to-oranges kind of thing’ in her mind. ‘Yes, they are all faculty members. But they do not all teach at the same type of institution.’
In order for Penn State to be ‘competitive and retain our quality and reputation,’ Powers wrote in an e-mail message later, ‘we must compete against ‘like’ institutions.’
Among AAU-member institutions in the Big Ten, of which Penn State is a member, the average annual salary for instructional faculty members is $128,800 at the professor level; $86,500 at the associate-professor level; and $75,700 at the assistant-professor level.
At Penn State University Park, the average is $130,400 at the professor level; $86,700 at the associate-professor level; and $72,000 at the assistant-professor level, according to the university.
As for the criticism of Penn State’s tuition increases, Powers said the university’s state appropriation has been flat over the past 10 years, whereas the state budget overall grew 41 percent.
‘There are numbers on both sides,’ she said.
In Harrisburg, one number that all parties appear to support is $27.3 billion, Cawley said. No matter how budget negotiations play out in the coming weeks, and no matter how the governor’s proposed line items may be adjusted, lawmakers seem committed to spending no more than $27.3 billion, he said.
That’s down three percent from 2010-2011 spending levels. The new state budget, if it’s approved on schedule, will take effect in July.
‘The unfortunate reality is that these are tough economic times,’ Cawley said. ‘We have a budget hole of $4.1 billion. We could do nothing. We could continue to spend at the rates we’ve been spending for the past eight years — and that $4.1 billion hole, by 2015, will be a $23 billion hole. … Some tough choices were made.’
And the good news for Pennsylvanians, he said, ‘is that the gravy train of reckless spending has pulled into the station.’
Related coverage
More Latest Penn State News
View all Latest Penn State News
New International Students Adjust to Happy Valley With Hearts Still Connected to Home
Each August for the last 10 years, I’ve written a column about Penn State’s newly-arrived international students. Why that emphasis, you ask? Well, to put it bluntly, our campus and […]
Judge Grants Penn State Fraternity Access to House After Members Were Locked Out on Move-In Day
A Centre County judge on Tuesday issued an order allowing Penn State fraternity members to return to their off-campus house after they said they were locked out by their landlord […]
Dunkin’ and Jimmy John’s to Open in Penn State Business Building
Two national chains will offer new dining options in a busy Penn State academic building. Dunkin’ and Jimmy John’s will open this fall in the café space of the Business […]
