The coming brain drain

By Kim Ciottone

Susan Dargan is just the type of asset Massachusetts’ higher education institutions don’t want to lose. A Ph.D. level professor, and an 18-year veteran of the sociology department at Framingham State College, Dargan says she and her husband are "doing OK economically," as a dual-income family. But many younger faculty members are struggling to afford the basics, she observes. They’re increasingly choosing to teach in other states, or taking private-industry jobs.

Small steps in the right direction on the public-sector side include a new employment contract for the state’s higher ed faculty, and budding efforts to develop on-campus housing. On the private sector side, colleges and universities are reaching out to private-sector industry for supplemental faculty. But to address the long-term future, more has to be done (see sidebar, page 12).

Continued from cover

Sociology professor Susan Dargan says that if her own family’s circumstances were different, states with lower costs of living might be very attractive.

In addition to her regular daytime course-load, she teaches evening, intercession, and online courses each semester to supplement her income. She also serves as director of Framingham State College’s Global Education Center for which she receives a stipend.

"I’m married and my husband has a good job, because of that, we are doing OK economically," says Dargan. But many younger faculty members struggle to buy a home, or even rent.

"It’s something that you have to look at," she says. "If you find out you can go to Connecticut, Rhode Island or New Hampshire, for example and earn $15,000 to $20,000 more, with a lower cost of living, that would be something to consider." She says many faculty move away for this reason.

Trailing behind the nation

Massachusetts state college salaries trail those of their peers in other states, lagging 11 percent overall, according to a 2004 study. Full professors earn 14 percent less. A state college professor with a PhD and several years’ experience earns a median salary of $42,000. Very few reach $60,000. The current pay system of gradual increases favors newer arrivals who are recruited at higher, more currently-competitive salaries

When the high cost of living is factored in, the most experienced, long-time professors actually fare worst, earning as much as 22 percent less, or $18,913, compared to full professors in other states. The stage is set for increased recruitment of experienced teachers by out-of-state institutions, experts warn.

Add another factor - demographics. The baby boom generation faculty, which came on board in large numbers during the state system’s growth period in the 1960s and 1970s, begins retiring in the next 5-7 years.

Dr. Robert Antonucci, president of Fitchburg State College, says the school evaluates future staff needs by looking ahead on a five-year basis, but reviews that look-ahead every year to make adjustments where necessary. The worst thing colleges can do, he says, "is to ignore the issue and wait until it happens." The state system is seeing enrollments increase each year because of the accelerating costs of a private education.

More, sir?

Business careers are becoming more enticing to aspiring educators, Framingham State College’s Robert Martin points out. Since coming on board as vice president of academic affairs at FSC in 2004, he’s seen FSC lose two faculty members in its business department alone to professional positions. Colleges can’t compete with salaries offered by the state’s strong computer-science and health-care sectors.

State college faculty and librarians last saw a pay raise in 2002. The Chronicle of Higher Education reports that in 2005, faculty salaries failed to keep pace with inflation for the first time since 1997.

This last Dec. 22, Gov. Mitt Romney signed a supplemental budget bill that included 3-5 percent pay raises for state college and university professors over the course of 3 years. The bill also approves a new post-tenure review in which approved faculty members can receive an additional 3-6 percent salary increase.

FSC’s Antonucci served as a lead negotiator on the contract. It begins to address some of the salary iniquities, he says, by improving base salaries and recognizing quality performance, "but it in no way ends the issue."

FSC, which had 2,750 full- and part-time enrollees in spring 2004, has been hiring in recent years and now has about 171 full time faculty. But that falls short of the most recent peak, in 2001, of 201 faculty, shortly before the college let go about 20 full-timers.

Formula for affordable faculty housing

The college’s recruiting success, Antonucci points out, was due to a promise that salaries would improve and because of the newly emerging amenity of on-campus faculty housing. The college hasn’t determined the actual cost, which he says will be based on average rents when the units come online. "We will make them as affordable as possible," he says.

FSC and Bridgewater State College are participating in a pilot faculty-housing program being conducted by the Massachusetts’ State College Building Authority, the state agency that builds all public college campuses. The push for affordable, on-campus housing for faculty is gaining momentum among public and private institutions, says Antonucci.

Under the program, FSC will have 4-5 units available by July ‘06. Such on-campus housing is not only a great recruitment tool - it also brings faculty closer to the students and builds campus culture.

While private colleges have always provided a measure of on-campus faculty housing, more are engaging in creative development projects that can provide additional options for faculty. One example is Regis College, which has plans to build a 362-unit "multi-generational living and learning community" on its 60-acre campus in Weston, to be called Regis East. College spokeswoman Marjorie Arons-Barron says the school has committed to an affordable component of that project at a percentage and cost still yet to be determined.

But the concept is on the rise among private colleges, with about 50 private colleges are engaging in similar projects across the country, says Arons-Barron. Regis East integrates educational offerings with housing residents.

Framingham State’s Dargan agrees that affordable, on-campus housing options are one thing that colleges can do to bring in top faculty. A recent opening in her department

drew more than 100 applications from across the country, but many of the hopefuls turned away when they pitted the salary against the cost of living, she says.

Part-time plateau

To try to fill the gaps, public colleges and universities have increasingly hired part time and adjunct professors. But adjuncts don’t keep regular office hours and many split their time between several institutions (see sidebar, page 14). At community colleges, about one-half the total workload is being taught by part-time help, says Joseph LeBlanc vice president of the Massachusetts Community College Council, a union which represents faculty and professorial staff at the state’s 15 community colleges. "For our state, [which] thrives on its brain power, that is obscene," he says.

Low public-college salaries result in difficulty recruiting and high turnover, LeBlanc says. He notes that Massachusetts is now compared to Florida and Texas relative to what we spend on public faculty salaries, not a good sign for a state trading on the quality of its education structure. Other than the newly-signed state faculty contract, he says, "I hate to be too bleak, but I don’t see a whole lot happening, at least in the world of community colleges."

While there may be some rise in teaching models used by the University of Phoenix, which has professionals teach its courses, experts say there are limits to which traditional campuses, public or private, can adopt such measures.

Antonucci says that in the business department of his school, many of the adjunct faculty are, in fact, business professionals. But, he warns, "Not everyone can teach. Academic quality must be number one. We have to make sure we have the right people in the classroom."

Placing a value on the college life

That trend is even less likely at larger private colleges, says David Angel, provost and vice president for Academic Affairs at Clark University which is also seeking to decrease its hiring of adjuncts in exchange for more tenured track professors. Within the core four year degree colleges that Clark competes with, parents and students, he says, expect to be taught by full time faculty.

Angel says Clark hasn’t experienced a significant change in hiring over the past 5-10 years. The college in fact hired between 25 percent and 30 percent of its tenure track faculty during that time.

Climbing housing prices haven’t kept the Clark from getting its first choice candidates in the majority of cases, Angel says, but adds that candidates now "look a little harder at the affordability of this region."

Early-stage discussions are in progress among the colleges of the Worcester Consortium to consider providing some form of faculty housing within the city, particularly for more early-stage career faculty. Such a step would benefit private and public colleges alike, Angel says. "We think the time is right for those discussions to happen,," says Angel. Some private colleges have also begun providing low-interest loans to faculty members for housing, although Clark is not among them.

Massachusetts’ colleges are also counting on a natural pool of those inherently attracted to the lifestyle and rewards of being a college professor, and working on a college campus. Those include more tangible draws.

State colleges also offer good health care benefits and retirement packages, which Dargan says play a role in retaining some of their existing faculty. Increasing exposure to teaching environments for graduate and post-graduate students, she says, is another way to help attract the future faculty pool. "People who do this, do it because they love teaching," says Dargan. Increasing exposure to real life teaching experiences, she says, can help draw more to the field, despite lower salaries.

The bottom line

The University of Massachusetts at Amherst, ranked among the top 50 research institutions worldwide, has the ability to make competitive offers when it comes to recruiting, says Dan Clawson, president of the Massachusetts Society of Professors. But it can’t compete with all of them (see sidebar, page 13).

Competitive offers are based on how much a professor has accomplished. Full professor recruits from outside a system typically have an extraordinary record, says Clawson. "They are someone who is going to bring to the department something it doesn’t have, they are going to add luster."

But for most, pay for long-time full professors at state colleges and universities is the least competitive, due to the lower salary levels many of them began at a decade or two ago. Starting salaries for newcomers must be set by today’s dollars to compete. This doesn’t reward longevity. It creates an incentive for existing full professors to find a job somewhere else to get a pay increase, says Clawson.

Once new faculty are recruited, the state has historically been slow in providing the pay increases needed to keep them. "Our pay raises are never straight forward and regular," he says. "We are still waiting for pay from 2001 that the state agrees that they owe us. If we are lucky, we receive that in 2006."

While there’s a presumption that full professors are already earning a lot of money, and their family and community ties will keep them here, "The bottom line is that salaries for Massachusetts public colleges and universities, are not up to the cost of living. In fact we are losing ground each year," says Clawson. "That invites losing some of our best faculty, because it’s the top professors that get recruited by the top institutions."

Kim Ciottone can be reached at: kciottone@wbjournal.com.

SIDEBAR: Our state colleges: a call to action
In its 2005 report, “Investing in our Future,” the state Senate Higher Task Force
on Higher Education recommends the following state spending:
• $400 million over the next five to seven years to provide the full funding recommended
by the state Board of Higher Education
• $1.7 billion over five years for capital improvements in the University of
Massachusetts system
• $1.2 billion at state and community colleges and $100 million over 10 years to
match money raised privately by public higher education institutions.
The Senate Task Force on Public Higher Education is also currently working on
a Higher Education Reform bill that includes a $41 million increase for public
higher education funding. The bill will also attempt to lock in affordability by setting
a tuition and fees increase limits, by linking them directly to cost of living.
“We’re hoping to have that bill voted out favorably in the next two weeks,” says Co-
Chair Sen. Steven Panagiotakos.
“That will provide a substantial increase, but it certainly doesn’t close the gap,”
he says.
The state used to be able to bank on its premier status as an education hub, but not
any more, he says. North Carolina, Virginia, Arizona and other states, he says, are all
investing big money into their public institutions and becoming research engines.
“We are a knowledge economy,” says Panagiotakos. “If we don’t invest in our
public higher education institutions,” where 2/3 of Massachusetts high school
graduates now attend, “then we have seriously injured and put at a disadvantage the
majority of our future workforce. We have to make sure our public institutions are
top notch, and they are not going to be if we don’t begin funding them in the
appropriate way.” K.C.

SIDEBAR: An Adjunct’s life is not an easy one
Hildy Schilling, an adjunct professor of Psychology at Fitchburg State
College, has been carrying her 22-credit hour teaching load to the classroom
everyday for seven years – literally.
Like many adjunct professors working at colleges across the state, Schilling’s
doctorate level credentials and teaching schedule match and in some cases surpass
that of many full-time, salaried faculty members.
But as an adjunct, Schilling has no on-campus office. Adjuncts receive no
retirement or benefit package, and no personal or sick days. They work at percourse
pay levels less than half that of salaried professors. They also don’t
engage in student advising and don’t participate in faculty, departmental, or
campus meetings.
Challenging economic times have led to increased hiring of adjunct and part
time faculty at public colleges across the state. “They are journeymen. A lot of
adjuncts are eking out a professional life teaching at 3, to 4, and sometimes
even more institutions,” says Robert Martin, vice president of academic affairs
at Framingham State College.
Fitchburg State College has about 171 full time faculty members, down
from more than 190 in 2000. The difference is made up through the hiring of adjuncts – at less cost.
Schilling says she doesn’t feel like part of the college community. She hears only indirectly about campus events, and meetings
with students are usually after class or in the coffee shop. She often can’t answer student questions about advising and registering
because adjuncts don’t do that work.
But Schilling, who has had a passion for teaching from a very young age, says she is not complaining. A mother of three and
a concert viola and violinist, she says that despite the drastic difference in pay, the schedule has proven to be ideal. Now that
her children are older, however, she is seeking a fulltime position.
The financial trade-off, she says, allows adjuncts to continue to pursue and gain experience teaching in a collegiate setting,
keep up with current research and teaching models. “To get paid for what you actually love to do is a tremendous thing,” she
adds. “For me, teaching is one of those jobs that instead of looking at the clock to see if it’s time to go, I’m always looking to
see if I can get fit one more thing in. It’s a great job.” K.C.