When university administrators in the UNC system and nationwide decide to increase tuition, they often cite the need for funds to retain faculty as a reason for the hike.
Still, according to an annual report about myths of professor pay from the American Association of University Professors, faculty salaries are not the primary cause of higher student costs — cuts to state support and declining university endowments are to blame.
John Barnshaw, senior higher education researcher at the AAUP, said professor salaries did indeed go up in the 2014-15 academic year, increasing by an average of 1.4 percent. But it was the first increase for faculty above 1 percent since the recession ended.
Barnshaw said it is hard to project whether this increase in faculty salaries is a trend that will continue in the future.
Executive Vice Provost Ron Strauss said that UNC faculty salaries haven’t kept up with the cost of living — which has contributed to trouble retaining faculty in some cases.
While some faculty did receive a raise in 2014-15 for the first time in years, he said, it was not as high as some people perceive. The N.C. General Assembly granted $5 million in state funds for UNC-system salary increases, but it wasn’t an across-the-board raise.
Barnshaw said people believe growth in faculty salaries drive increases in tuition because they mistakenly believe institutional aspects of campus are already paid for.
Strauss said that although a portion of faculty salaries comes from student tuition, he would agree with the report that they are not the sole cause of tuition hikes.