UPDATED: June 13, 2013 at 11:01 a.m.

Salaries and pay increases vary widely among colleges, schools and departments at Syracuse University.

That’s what the SU Chapter of the American Association of University Professors found, in its annual salary report released Friday.

“It could be a couple different factors,” said Pat Cihon, president of the SU Chapter of the AAUP and an associate professor of law and public policy. “It’s hard to say.”

Cihon said the University Senate Committee on Budget and Fiscal Affairs usually recommends about a 2.2 to 2.3 percent salary increase. Ultimately, these pay increases are up to the dean at each school and college, he said.

A dean’s generosity, individual schools’ and colleges’ budgets and matching offers faculty members have from other schools plays into the disparity in salaries, Cihon said.

Average salary increases for continuing faculty in SU’s schools and colleges ranged from a 5.4 percent increase in the David B. Falk College of Sport and Human Dynamics to a 3.1 percent increase both in the Martin J. Whitman School of Management and Maxwell School of Citizenship and Public Affairs.

As a whole, the average compensation — which includes salary and other benefits such as medical insurance — of full-time faculty members was $131,300 for 2012-13, an increase of about 3.6 percent from the year before. Average salary also increased by 3.6 percent to $97,000.

SU’s 321 professors had an average salary of $122, 200; the university’s 286 associate professors made an average of $88,600; assistant professors earned an average of $77,900.

Having more longer-tenured faculty members also affects these numbers, Cihon said.

Faculty in Maxwell tied for the lowest salary increase in 2012-2013, but the school also has the largest percentage of faculty with tenure. Maxwell faculty also had the fourth-highest average salary for 2012-13 at $105, 348.

Some increases are greater because schools and college are looking to catch up with each other in terms of salaries, Cihon said. College of Law faculty members have an average salary of $141,590, while the College of Visual and Performing Arts holds the lowest average salary at SU of $71,198

Vice Chancellor and Provost Eric Spina said the supply and demand in subject areas is different and SU has historically seen these variations.

While a finance professor can easily make $100,000 today, he said, an art professor is lucky to be earning that much. This is “simply the way of the market,” he said.

“We really can’t as an institution look for equity across departments and schools and colleges,” he said. “What we have to do as a university is make sure that level of a disparity is something that we’re comfortable with.”

Information about how SU compares to peer institutions wasn’t included in this year’s report. This will be discussed during the senate budget committee’s meeting in September, Spina said.

In the past, the average compensation of SU faculty members has been similar to those at the University of Washington and State University of New York at Binghamton.

Spina said SU has been improving among its peers during the past three to four years, and deans are trying to increase salaries to stay competitive.

Said Spina: “Given the rate of inflation and given the overall economic climate, I’m actually pleased we were able to implement salaries for continuing faculty by 3.6 percent.”

Published on June 10, 2013 at 8:11 pm

Contact Dylan: dmsegelb@syr.edu | @dylan_segelbaum