Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: THURSDAY, March 11, 1993 TAG: 9303110279
SECTION: CURRENT PAGE: NRV4 EDITION: NEW RIVER VALLEY
SOURCE: MADELYN ROSENBERG STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: RADFORD LENGTH: Medium
STUDY SHOWS MOST MALE, FEMALE FACULTY PAY EQUAL
In most cases, women and men with similar backgrounds receive equal salaries at Radford University, according to a nine-month study.But in two areas - health sciences and natural sciences - 16 female assistant and associate professors are being paid less than the range predicted by a model.
"For these two groups, the model suggests that gender is a significant factor," says a report released this week by an eight-person committee studying salaries.
There may be valid reasons for the individual salaries to be lower than predicted, said Charles Owens, the university's chief academic officer. Regardless, the university will know soon enough: administrators have been asked to study the cases and make adjustments as soon as possible.
"We don't know yet how much it will be," Owens said Wednesday.
The salary changes would not affect the salary increases for other faculty members. Money for the compensation, if necessary, will come from turnover among university faculty members - when higher-paid faculty members retire and are replaced with newer and lower-paid faculty.
The changes will go before the board of visitors at it's next meeting.
The committee used a model to compare salaries of groups of tenured and tenure-track faculty members. The model took into account a number of variables - the number of years a person has taught at the university, for instance - and then predicted salary ranges that faculty member should fall into.
While, as a whole, the university does not have a problem with gender bias, the situation always could pop up, warned the committee, which included both men and women from a range of departments.
The committee recommended that the university periodicly monitor faculty salaries.
And the committee also asked the university to kick off another study that would compare faculty salaries by rank and discipline with those at peer institutions.
Attracting and retaining an outstanding faculty is essential to a university, the report said, and a key factor in recruiting and retaining faculty is providing competitive salaries. "That will be our main issue for the next year," Owens said. "We definitely attend to do it."
Owens said he will likely have the same committee look at that issue.
Radford started its salary study in May in the wake of publicity on pay equity studies at other universities.
Old Dominion University gave $302,000 in raises to female and minority employees whose salaries lagged behind their white male counterparts after one such study last year. Virginia Commonwealth handed out $321,000 in make-up pay to 168 female faculty members.
But those problems were university-wide, Owens said. Radford's compensations will be "much less than that."