Dartmouth assistant professors are among the lowest paid in the Ivy League, according a recently released survey by the American Association of University Professors. The College's pay ranking for assistant professors dropped this past year from 49th to 58th nationwide.
Brown University, which placed closest to Dartmouth among the Ivies in this category, was ranked 18 spaces ahead of the College at 40th.
Dartmouth's pay for associate professors improved from 21st last year to 15th, however, while the pay for full professors remained at 19th.
The data also places the College last in the Ivy League for full professors' salaries and fifth for associate professors' salaries. Columbia University did not release statistics, so it was not factored into the survey.
The management consulting firm McKinsey and Co., which the College recently hired to assess its administrative effectiveness, also noted that administrative pay has increased at a faster rate than faculty pay.
John Curtis, director of research for the AAUP, offered several possible explanations for Dartmouth's low ranking.
"It doesn't look like the pay [for assistant professors] is exceptionally low," Curtis said, citing the fact that the pay levels of all professor positions at the College rank in the top 20 percent nationwide. "It's not necessarily that the pay is lower; it may just be that you have an influx of new professors this year."
Dean of the Faculty Carol Folt also defended the College's ranking, noting that Dartmouth's faculty composition differs greatly from other schools'.
"Dartmouth's profile is extremely different from almost all other schools in the top 20 institutions because the percentage of our faculty in professional schools is very low," she said. "Most of the top 20 schools are located in the most expensive cities in the country."
Graduate school professors tend to make more money on average than undergraduate professors. The fact that Dartmouth has the smallest ratio of graduate students to undergraduates in the Ivy League helps explain Dartmouth's low ranking, Folt said.
Another factor contributing to Dartmouth's ranking is that the AAUP survey does not use total compensation figures, which include health insurance benefits.
"Dartmouth's relative ranking usually increases when viewed [with total compensation] in this way because we have an aggressive compensation program at all ranks," Folt said.
Folt also denied that any recent exodus of professors from the College could in any way be influenced by the Dartmouth's comparatively low salaries.
"I don't think I ever lose anyone because I can't match the salary," Folt said.
Dartmouth has hired more junior faculty in recent years. The pay discrepancy between junior and senior faculty automatically places Dartmouth low on the assistant professor ranking list, according to Folt.
"Dartmouth has always been aggressive in hiring junior faculty," she said. "However, this is always the most volatile category, and it is the most affected by the institutional biases in composition."
