Editor’s Note: This letter was originally published in the Oct. 18 print edition of The Lamron. We apologize for the delay.
Letter to the Editor:
Let me thank The Lamron for publishing the Oct. 4 article on "Wages for faculty vary across campus based on discipline of professor,” including the eye-opening statistics regarding the pay differential between the annual pay of full-time School of Business professors versus that of full-time Humanities professors. That differential has been a constant since I arrived at Geneseo as a newly-minted Ph.D. in 1972. It's rather ironic that at a college that prides itself on its liberal arts ethos and curriculum, the highest salaries on average go to [School of Business] faculty. Many years ago, I was shocked to discover that a new and entry-level Ph.D. in accounting was hired at more than what I was earning as a full professor of English. Of course, the college administration will justify these striking and unfair salary discrepancies by the iron laws of supply and demand of the "dismal science." Another—and perhaps even greater—salary differential The Lamron might wish to examine, again by way of a statistical breakdown, is the salary differential between full-time faculty and full-time administrators. The latter is also a group that seems to grow larger by the decade.
Eugene Stelzig
Distinguished Teaching Professor of English Emeritus