The AAUP has just released a report finding that the average faculty salary

went up slightly less than the nation’s inflation rate last year (3.1%

versus 3.4%). Predictably, it contains a warning that “allowing salaries to

fall behind will hurt the ability to attract professorial talent.” You can

read about it here.

Schools would see that they have a compensation problem for faculty members

if they only received a few applications from poorly qualified people when

they announced openings. Everything I’ve heard indicates that when faculty

vacancies are announced, it’s common for the number of good applicants to

number 100 or more. Few institutions ever have to hire someone who isn’t

well qualified (at least on paper) because teaching is so unattractive

compared with other opportunities. Nevertheless, you can expect to see

calls by faculty spokesmen for higher salaries across the board in order to

head off a dreaded “brain drain.”