UT System Releases Data on Faculty "Productivity"
This afternoon, the University of Texas System released much-anticipated data on faculty "productivity" — noting, however, that the 821-page spreadsheet is in a raw draft form that has not been fully verified and "cannot yield accurate analysis, interpretations or conclusions."
The information in the spreadsheet, which includes professors' total compensation, tenure status and total course enrollment, was compiled at the request of the UT System Board of Regents' recently formed task force on productivity and excellence. That task force is chaired by Regent Brenda Pejovich, who is on the board of the Texas Public Policy Foundation, an Austin-based conservative think tank ...
Comments (7)
Samantha Shaw
Lots of questions: Why wasn't something like this done years ago? Up until now, what has the University's matrix for evaluating teachers and programs been? Hopefully, this sort of this will be done every year, that way the school can quantitatively pinpoint inefficiency - just like any other business.
Santa Gertrudis
UT and A&M will be as prestigious, competitive and influential as Hillsdale College and Acton College. We can only dream to one day join their ranks. Thank goodness for the leadership and insight that will lead us down this promising, recognized path.
Buck up Texans, this is exactly where we are headed.
Professor Fuzz
Just looked at my data on the spreadsheet. Can't wait to get the $20K more per year over my actual contract salary that they've got me down for!
With gross errors of this sort, the dataset is not going to be of much use, and any actions based on this erroneous dataset will undoubtedly be challenged.
As a faculty member in the UT System, I'm not afraid of the public knowing what I make and how many students I teach, I just want the reported data to reflect reality.
Tere North
Professor Fuzz
I would imagine that "professors' total compensation" includes your benefits, not just your salary, so whatever your university contributes toward your health insurance, retirement, etc.
In know that for use when we fill out grant applications we have to calculate to include "42% x salaries; includes retirement, medicare, and health insurance."
So in our case, they would list our compensation as nearly half again as much as we have a contract for.
Professor Fuzz
Tere North:
Understood, but there is a separate column on the spreadsheet for total compensation: Salary + benefits.
The category that I am disputing is simply labeled as "Annual Salary," and it is significantly above my contract salary.
If the salary category has been inflated to include administrative overhead and other expenses that are not paid to me (either before or after taxes and other deductions), then the figure is grossly misleading and makes it appear that I earn some 25% more than I actually do. If I do not receive it in either salary or benefits, then it is not salary or benefits and belongs in a different accounting category.
Given the political agenda behind the release of this data, I can easily imagine the public and legislative outrage at some of the figures posted. Drop my salary and benefits numbers back down to what I actually receive as salary and benefits and it's a much more pathetic number.
Again, the posting of this data was inevitable. The posting of erroneous data is inexcusable.
Tere North
I certainly agree that there should be separate columns. One that is base salary. The other that is total compensation. When most people look at numbers like this they assume the number is your before taxes take home pay. Unless one school is paying considerable more than another in terms of the benefit package, then all that should be reported is the base salary and there is no reason those should be in error. I know at my school my contract statement lists my annual salary. That clearly comes from a payroll database, and would seem easy enough to use these real and accurate numbers to put in the spreadsheet. All this premature effort will do is further alienate folks against higher ed by making them think we make far more than we really do. And if there is an administrative overhead category, that should be accounted to the unit or entire university, not the individual employee.
my Comments
Where's this information for the health campuses? I think if the System is going to report on faculty salaries, they should show ALL faculty salaries, not just the academic campuses.