Faculty salaries
at Hawaii colleges
rate high in nation

Most isle schools pay in the top
40 percent; UH-Manoa, the average

By Pete Pichaske
Phillips News Service

WASHINGTON -- Faculty salaries at Hawaii's colleges and university are higher than in most other states, a survey by the American Association of University Professors has found.

The survey found that salaries at almost all of Hawaii's schools for faculty members from professors to instructors were higher than the national average for comparable schools.

The exception was the University of Hawaii at Manoa. Salaries there, while the highest in the isles, were only about average for large public universities.

"They pay well," Linda Bell, the Haverford College economics professor who wrote the study, said of faculty salaries in Hawaii.

"With all the economic problems in Hawaii, they'd be good jobs to have."

The AAUP, which represents some 44,000 college and university teachers, collected 1998-99 salary figures from about three-quarters of the nation's 3,000 institutions of higher learning, including the 10 in Hawaii.

For each school, the survey calculated the average salaries for full professors, associate professors, assistant professors and instructors, and rated the sal-aries for comparable schools.

At Hawaii Community College, for example, full professors' and associate professors' salaries were in the second fifth (or second 20 percent) of the pay scale for community colleges nationwide, while assistant professors' and instructors' salaries were in the top fifth.

At UH-Manoa, salaries for full professors, associate professors and instructors were in the third fifth for major universities, while salaries for assistant professors were in the second fifth.

The average salary for all faculty members at the Manoa campus was $64,400, compared to an average salary at major public universities of $62,000.

In recent years, UH-Manoa has been hit especially hard by state budget cuts, and the administration has asked departments to trim budgets another 4 percent per year for the next three years. The faculty senate is opposed to the move, arguing it will cost jobs.

Budget cuts have forced the School of Travel Industry Management to become part of the College of Business Administration and now threaten the School of Public Health and medical school. Meanwhile, the university has been unable to fill leadership positions in several schools and departments.

A survey last week found that faculty morale was lower at UH-Manoa than any of the 10 other schools surveyed. The morale survey included the Employment Training Center on King Street, which was not included in the AAUP study.

The faculty salary survey is conducted annually. This year's results for Hawaii almost mirror those of last year, although sal-aries in the isles, while higher than last year, fell slightly compared to schools nationwide.

Nationally, the study found that faculty salaries rose 3.6 percent from the previous year, the biggest increase in a dozen years.

Still, teachers earn 38 percent less than other professionals with the same education, according to the survey.