The oil that fuels the academic machinery

When it comes to supporting the UI’s various colleges and institutions, money talks.

The university’s largest source of funding came from tuition and fees – bringing in $240 million in revenue, according to the General Education Fund budget for fiscal 2007.

A report published by the UI Office of Finance and Operations said that last year, the university projected to have $2.4 million in additional tuition revenues. The report attributed this increase to a mix of in-state and out-of-state residents, something UI officials noted this spring.

During the annual “Condition of the University” address, UI interim President Gary Fethke recognized the effect that out-of-state residents have on the campus.

“Our enrollments are at an all-time high, driven by robust nonresident enrollments, particularly in students coming to us from the western suburbs of Chicago,” Fethke said.

With this demographic in mind, Fethke noted the existence of an informational center in Chicago that helps students with career placement and admissions.

On the flipside, the UI spent more than $221 million on faculty salaries. The general-fund report said the UI planned to see faculty salaries increase an average of 5 percent across all colleges.

In following the mandate of the Regents’ Partnership Plan for Transformation and Excellence, these salary gains come on the heels of the UI moving from ninth to seventh in the Big Ten in average faculty pay.

The efforts to aid faculty salaries at the university seem to buck a national trend.

A 2006 report from the American Association of University Professors found that although salaries rose 3.1 percent over two years before the report was released, when adjusted for inflation, the figures decreased less than 1 percent.

And although the figures weren’t reflective of the UI because of the transformation plan increases, UI Provost Michael Hogan said professor pay is the barometer of a quality school.

A 2006 UI study of exiting faculty found 85 percent of those who left the university cited pay as the reason.

E-mail DI reporter Colin Burke at:
colin-burke@uiowa.edu

Information from:www.dailyiowan.com