When Tom Sullivan begins work as UVM’s president Monday, he’ll have a secondary appointment as a tenured professor of political science — a position he may assume, under his contract, when he leaves the presidency. His shadow faculty salary has been set at $170,000 for 2012-13, according to a June 20 memo to Sullivan by Rob Cioffi, chair of the board of trustees.
That’s more than $40,000 above what the next highest paid member of the political science department is getting. Moreover, after three years’ service as president, his Fiscal Year 16 faculty salary will be increased to $195,000, according to the memo.
All of which is reminiscent of what happened with Dan Fogel, Sullivan’s predecessor, who stepped down from the presidency last summer and assumed a tenured professorship of English at a salary of $195,000, beginning in January 2013 when his paid leave ends. The next highest paid professor of the English Department will receive $116,548 in 2012-13.
Fogel’s salary is higher than the English department’s current norm partly because it was above the norm when it was initially set, at $105,600, back in 2002 after he’d become president. Ensuing faculty contracts would have brought that to around $163,000 last year; he was then given something akin to a presidential premium, as we’ve reported before, to bring the figure up to $195,000.
But back to Sullivan (whose salary as president, incidentally, is $417,000): His faculty career has been as a law professor (University of Minnesota, University of Arizona, Washington University, University of Missouri); his degree is a J.D. (Indiana University), and unlike most of his departmental colleagues, he does not have a Ph.D. His research specialties are complex litigation and anti-trust law — topics that presumably will enrich the political science department’s curriculum.
His UVM faculty pay is based based on a benchmark for law, not political science. Here’s how Cioffi explains the $170,000:
The salary is based on the median full professor salary for professors of legal professions and studies for 2010-2011 ($169,249) as reported in the Oklahoma State University study of faculty salaries.”
We checked with Oklahoma State, and $169,249 was indeed the 2010-11 average (not median) for that category (professors of legal professions and studies), which includes law professors (average salary: $170,587).
What was OSU’s 2010-11 average for a political science professor? 114,688.
How does $170,000 compare in UVM’s political science department? The next highest faculty salaries in 2012-13 are $125,881 and $118,553.