Bottom of the heap.

Byline: The Register-Guard

In a time of 12.1 percent unemployment, Oregonians may have a hard time mustering much sympathy for University of Oregon faculty members whose pay averages a mere $73,300 a year. But by national, even regional, standards, faculty pay at the UO is scandalously low. And there is a connection between low faculty pay and high joblessness: Higher education is the engine of the economy, and Oregon is running on low-octane fuel.

Faculty salaries at the University of Oregon and other state universities aren't just low. By some important measures, they're the lowest.

The American Association of University Professors gathers salary data from universities throughout the nation, and publishes an annual Report on the Economic Status of the Profession. The 2008-09 report groups universities into categories - the UO, as a comprehensive doctorate-granting university, is in Category 1. Salaries at each institution are sorted into quintiles, with 1 being the top and 5 the bottom. The UO's average salaries for full professors ($90,800), associate professors ($72,400), assistant professors ($66,400) and instructors ($45,000) rate a 4, 5, 4 and 4, respectively.

Other Category 1 universities can be found with even lower rankings. But the UO does not consider itself to be in a league with New Mexico State University or the University of Northern Colorado. It's a member of the American Association of Universities, the invitation-only organization that includes 60 of the nation's top research universities.

Among AAU universities, faculty salaries at the UO rank dead last - 60th out of 60, with an average salary for all faculty ranks of $73,300. Second from the bottom is the University of Missouri, at $81,600. The UO would have to raise faculty salaries by 11.5 percent across the board just to climb out of last place.

AAU members include the nation's top private and public universities, and the UO can't hope to match many of their salaries. Professors at the University of California-Berkeley earn an average of $116,500. Professors at Duke University make $132,700.

Screening the nation's top-tier universities out of the comparisons, however, doesn't improve the UO's status. The Oregon University System's 2008 Fact Book lists eight comparators for the UO - all state universities, all members of the AAU, and the UO's salaries rank last. The closest comparator is the University of Indiana at Bloomington, where faculty salaries average $86,000. The UO pays its faculty 79 percent of the average of the others.

Faculty at other Oregon universities are also underpaid. Salaries at Oregon State University rank last among eight comparator universities. Portland State University is 10th in its group of 10. Western Oregon University, Southern Oregon University and Eastern Oregon University are 11th, 12th and 13th, respectively, in their group of 13 comparable universities. The only good news comes from the Oregon Institute of Technology, which is 11th among 12 in its group, finishing ahead of the West Virginia University Institute of Technology.

The market for academic talent is national, even global. From a salary standpoint, Oregon has dropped out of the competition. The state is fortunate in having universities that continue to meet high standards, but Oregon's advantages - a relatively low cost of living and a high quality of life - can only be relied upon to make up part of the salary deficit.

Richard Lariviere, who will become president of the UO in July, comes to Eugene from the University of Kansas, an AAU university with an average faculty salary of $91,400 - 25 percent higher than at the UO. He's no doubt aware that higher education claimed 15.1 percent of Oregon's general fund budget in 1987-89, but received only 6.4 percent in 2007-09. One of Lariviere's continuing challenges will be to persuade Oregon's governor and Legislature that underfunding higher education has consequences.

The new president might begin by asking whether it's a coincidence that the unemployment rate in Kansas is 6.1 percent.