Low UM faculty salaries hurt recruiting

A study by the Commissioner of Higher Education discovered that UM is experiencing increasing difficulty with recruiting and retaining faculty and staff.

To address this problem the Board of Regents will present a salary proposal to the Governor’s budget office in May for an additional pool of money, equivalent to two percent of employee payroll; that equates to roughly $15.9 million to boost salaries on par with other institutions.

University President George Dennison said part of the problem in retaining professors is that new assistant professors are paid closer to the national average than full professors.

“When you recruit, you have to pay closer attention to what everyone’s paying,” he said.  The result can sometimes be that new hires are paid close to, or even more, than experienced full professors, Dennison said.

Despite the payroll increase to address the problems, Dennison said the amount of money provided does not allow UM to keep up with the national average of salaries.

Bob Duringer, UM vice president for administration and finance, said a new professor’s salary depends on a range of things such as the discipline they are hired for, whether they are an associate or assistant professor and their experience. For example, a brand new hire may make $45,700 while a full professor would get $72,000, Duringer said.

According to Maria Cole, recruitment manager for UM, 38 faculty recruits were hired in 2007. Cole said the University is trying to make the recruitment process more efficient.

“We have to be competitive when we hire,” said new Provost, Royce Engstrom who moved to UM from the University of South Dakota last August. “The annual increase in faculty salary we get here tends to be lower than the typical increase around the country. If we hire a faculty member today, we have to pay them more than someone who has been here three to four years.”

In terms of retention, Engstrom said the University operates case-by-case. They set aside funds to address situations such as when faculty get offers from other places to double their salary. 

“We don’t have an unusually large rate of people leaving,” he said. “People are happy in Missoula.”

In Missoula, the cost of living is disproportionate to other cities in Montana, as well as the national average. According to the ACCRA (American Chamber of Commerce Researchers Association) Cost of Living Index Comparison data for 2007, whole milk cost $2.31 in Missoula, while the national average was $1.98. In Bozeman, coffee will set you back $3.48, while in Missoula you’re $4.76 in the hole.  The average cost of a home in Missoula is now $305,981 which is just shy of the national average of $307,241.

For new economics professor Derek Kellenberg, accepting UM’s salary was one of the more difficult decisions in choosing to move to Missoula.

“I was at another university- Georgia Tech- for three years,” he said. “I grew up out west. We were interested in moving out west again.”

Coming from Atlanta, Kellenberg said housing prices in Missoula are comparable.

“We’ve made Missoula work because we enjoy it here,” he said.