Across the country, colleges and universities are struggling to maintain faculty salaries as funds are increasingly spent on both athletics and administration, according to the report entitled “Where Are the Priorities? The Annual Report on the Economic Status of the Profession, 2007-08,” published by the American Association of University Professors on April 14.

“We are critical of many schools … but I would say that Cornell is more of a role model to follow,” said Saranna Thornton, primary author of the AAUP report and professor of economics at Hampden-Sydney College in Virginia.

According to the 2007-08 Financial Plan-in-Year Forecast published by Cornell’s Division of Planning and Budget, the average salary for faculty in endowed colleges “increased 5 percent in 2007-08 while the comparable average for contract college faculty grew 5.3 percent.”

Many universities, including Cornell, are still working to maintain competitive faculty salaries.

“I’d always want to improve [salaries] rather than keep [them] at the same level. I think we’re doing quite well, but it’s a struggle to keep faculty and staff salaries as high as we need them to be, not just to stay put, but to meet challenge,” said Provost Biddy Martin.

The average faculty salary at Cornell ranks lower than all other Ivy League schools besides Brown. Over a nine-month period from 2006-07, Cornell faculty earned an average of $112,636, according to the 2007-08 Financial Plan. Endowed college faculty were paid an average of $118,422, while faculty at the contract colleges earned an average of $104,102.

Harvard ranked the highest, with an average faculty salary of $138,666 per nine-month period.

Martin acknowledged that these numbers, however, do not take into account extraneous factors, such as the cost of living.