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In 1986 the Virginia General
Assembly approved a policy to enhance the competitive
position of higher education institutions in Virginia by
raising the average faculty salary of each publicly supported
higher education institution to the 60th percentile of a
group of peer institutions outside of Virginia. In the 1980's
JMU had two faculty salary peer groups, with the most recent
one being approved in 1986. The standard source of data on
faculty salaries is the AAUP salary survey that is completed
each year in the fall and published the following spring.
When the peer groups were
selected in 1986 in cooperation with institutional
representatives JMU ranked 22nd out of 25 peer institutions.
Due to the commitment by the Commonwealth significant monies
were designated by the General Assembly between 1986 and 1990
to raise the average salaries. Salary increases consisted of
12.25% in 1986-87, 8.50% in 1987-88, 8.53% in 1988-89, and
7.58% in 1989-90. Between 1985-86 and 1989-90, the average
JMU salary increased from $29,682 to $42,618, an increase of
43.6 percent. The severe state budget reductions in the early
1990's resulted in JMU's average salary rank slipping from
7th in 1989-90 to 12th in 1992-93. By 1996-97 the average
faculty salary was $49,971. This represented an increase of
17.27% since 1989-90. Even though the percentage increase was
far smaller than the ones between 1986-87 and 1989-90, JMU's
rank had risen to 9th place primarily because the other peer
institutions received even smaller increases.
JMU has changed in major ways
since 1986. The institution is prominently mentioned as one
of the best regional universities in the country in several
national publications. It has added a major new college in
the College of Integrated Science and Technology. It has
diversified its programs with a new General Education
Program, the first doctoral program in Psychology, and
expanded health-related programs. These quality indicators
and new programs resulted in a higher profile that attracts
quality students and faculty. JMU has one of the highest
rates of freshman applications in the country. In Virginia
JMU is now competing for students with the University of
Virginia and the College of William and Mary. If JMU is to
continue to attract quality students and faculty, it must
have the resources to pay quality faculty competitive
salaries. For these reasons it was increasingly obvious that
JMU needed a new peer group. Fortunately, officials at the
State Council of Higher Education for Virginia (SCHEV)
agreed.
In the winter of 1997
institutional representatives met at SCHEV to refine a method
to select 24 new peers. It was acknowledged that the current
peers were dated and should be revised for all institutions.
The selection of the new peer group was technically and
politically complicated. A potential group of 75 institutions
was generated through a multi-variate procedure (cluster
analysis) that compared JMU with national institutions on
criteria that included headcount, percentage of part-time
students, percentage of graduate students, percentage of
bachelors degrees conferred, percentage of degrees conferred
in various discipline clusters, research expenditures,
average SAT scores, and percent of full-time faculty with
terminal degrees. In addition, qualitative factors such as
accreditation in areas such as business, five-year graduation
rate, and percentage of applicants accepted could be
considered to finalize the list of peer institutions. From
these 75 institutions 25 (including JMU) were selected by
representatives from JMU, SCHEV, the Department of Planning
and Budget, and the House and Senate staff.
The table below lists the new
peer group with selected comparison data and the 1996-97 AAUP
salary average. One very important difference in this peer
group should be noted. This is a far more competitive list of
institutions than the 1986 group. Institutions now considered
peers include such well-known institutions as the University
of Notre Dame, the University of Delaware, Ohio University,
SUNY-Binghamton, the University of Rhode Island, Providence
College, and Texas Christian University.
These new peer institutions as
a whole have a much higher faculty salary average than the
1986 group. In 1995-96 JMU's average salary was within $1,000
of the 60th percentile which means that the institution was
not well positioned for good salary increases even though the
quality of JMU and its national reputation had improved
markedly since 1986. The situation with this new peer group
is much different. As can be seen at the end of the following
table, JMU is $4,500 below the 60th percentile. JMU is now
ranked 12th among its peer institutions. The hope is that JMU
will now be able to receive higher faculty salary increases
in the next several years to move it closer to the new 60th
percentile. These increases, however, are dependent upon the
actions of the General Assembly.
James Madison University is
very pleased to be considered among one of the best
institutions in the United States. It now appears that its
new peer group better reflects what JMU has become.
Additional questions about
this Research Notes can be addressed to the Office of
Institutional Research. Individuals
who would like to view the Web sites of these institutions
are urged to follow this link.
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