When University of Utah officials studied the matter last year, they calculated that about 300 of the university's roughly 900 tenure-track faculty earned less than 90 percent of the average salary of comparable faculty members elsewhere. Another 400 staff members also were below the 90 percent level. At Utah State University in Logan, faculty salaries are 17 percent to 26 percent below comparable institutions, depending on the salary survey used for comparison. USU administrators are aware of 41 staff or faculty members who left for higher salaries during the past two years. We lose their expertise.
Every faculty member is an asset to the community as well as the university.
When the university loses these resources, the community does as well. Many factors influence a faculty member's decision to leave or remain in Utah. But salaries and the adequacy of research funding play a role for many professors. Greg Swain joined USU's Chemistry and Biochemistry Department in 1994, then received tenure and became associate department head in 1998. But he left last year for Michigan State University.