There is neither a timeline nor any concrete plans currently for the creation of a University Senate subcommittee that would review and potentially share information on Syracuse University faculty salary data.

The committee will be headed by Associate Provost for Faculty Affairs LaVonda Reed. She and others in SU’s administration are working closely with the University Senate, Reed said, to put together a group that will review faculty data and determine how that data will be disseminated.

“That’s basically where we are right now,” Reed said.

It is unclear, however, whether the data will be as specific as the data formerly used in compiling the Committee Z Report, a public record of the average faculty member’s salary in each of SU’s schools and colleges.

After 50 consecutive years of sharing that data, SU has declined to do so since 2014 due to legal concerns related to an antitrust lawsuit brought against law schools for sharing faculty salary data, meaning there have been no Committee Z Reports since then. The report compares faculty salaries by college, gender in each college, percent changes in salaries per year and other factors.

The annual report was long distributed by SU’s American Association of University Professors chapter, which represents and protects the rights of faculty members.

Bruce Carter, chair of the University Senate’s Committee on Budget and Fiscal Affairs, said he was told by SU Chancellor Kent Syverud that the data that ends up being disseminated by the new committee won’t likely have that same level of specificity nor the amount of detail that “you would want.”

“I wasn’t sure if he was talking about the budget committee or me personally, but it’s true for both,” Carter said.

He added that the Committee Z Reports were a valuable tool for faculty, as it allowed them to be aware of things such as gender pay inequities and pay inequities across ranks in different departments as well as across schools and colleges.

Reed said there is currently no timeline for the creation of the new committee or for the selection of the members on the committee.

She added that administrators are still working closely with the University Senate on determining “all the details” of the committee.

“We’re not doing it hastily or anything like that, and that’s why we’re working really closely with the Senate to do it in a way that’s reasonable, responsible and inclusive,” Reed said.

Published on October 25, 2016 at 8:34 pm

Contact Michael: mdburk01@syr.edu