The issue of whether faculty and staff should receive differential raises flared on several campuses in 2006, most notably the University of Kentucky, where President Lee Todd successfully argued [1] (over strong opposition) that the institution needed to overcome nationally lagging faculty salaries by giving bigger average annual raises to professors than to staff members.

But the third of three annual salary surveys by the College and University Professional Association for Human Resources (the others cover pay for faculty members [2] and senior-level administrators [3]) finds that median raises for mid-level college administrators and professional staff were on par with those for professors and just slightly lower than those for senior administrators in 2006-7.

The median salary for mid-level administrators rose by 3.8 percent this year, up from 3.3 percent, 3.0 percent and 2.1 percent in the previous three years. The 2006-7 raise for this group of college and university employees was above the 3.2 percent rate of inflation for the year.

Parallel surveys released in recent weeks by CUPA-HR found that salaries for senior-level administrators rose by 4.0 percent, while those for faculty members climbed by 3.8 percent.

“Positions included in the CUPA-HR Mid-Level Salary Survey are some of the most important positions on college campuses,” said Andy Brantley, the association’s chief executive officer. “I am pleased to see the salary increases reported this year are higher than those reported during the previous three years. I hope that colleges and universities will be able to continue this trend next year.”

For the first time in several years, median raises were bigger at public institutions (4.0 percent) than at private ones (3.6 percent). And salary increases for mid-level administrators were biggest at community colleges than at any of the other sectors of higher education: 4.0 percent at associate-degree-granting institutions, compared to 3.8 percent at doctoral universities, 3.7 percent at master’s institutions, and 3.6 percent at bachelor’s-degree-granting colleges and specialized institutions.

As is true in most years, the highest median salaries were garnered by campus doctors (staff physicians earned $131,522 on average) and lawyers (staff attorneys were paid $100,297 on average) -- except at those institutions that play football and basketball at high levels. Head football coaches at doctoral institutions earned median pay of $187,873, while head men's basketball coaches at those universities earned $166,036.

Median Pay by Position and Sector, 2006-7