AAUP Faculty Salary Survey Shows Challenges

A key to Cornell’s academic success is the ability to attract and retain a world-class faculty. Faculty salary and benefits are a major factor in a university’s competitive position, and the American Association of University Professors (AAUP) conducts an annual salary survey to add transparency to this important issue. The AAUP released its salary survey for 2024-25.

Although faculty salaries increase each year, they have struggled to keep up with rapidly increasing inflation over the last couple of years. In the past, Cornell publicly announced an analysis of its faculty salary data, and a formal faculty committee on the Economic Status of the Faculty also issued public reports. In recent years, Cornell has been less public with such data, but the Ithaca campus totals still are shared annually with the AAUP survey.

RELATED: AAUP Releases Annual Faculty Salary Survey

Below summarizes how Cornell stands in the Ivy League. (All values are $1,000):

FCS FULL-TIME FACULTY SALARIES, FALL 2024

Average salary, equated to a 9-/10-month contract, by academic rank, Unadjusted (dollars)

The only Ivy League that Cornell ranks above is Brown. Cornell is also fourth in the Ivy League for lecturer salaries. The main reason for this is that this data combines salaries for Cornell’s endowed and four statutory colleges. The salaries and benefits in those SUNY units have traditionally been lower. So, Cornell is above the national average in all categories, but below the Ivy League average.

With recent lawsuit costs as well as adverse actions by the Trump Administration, most Ivy League schools are incurring deficit spending, so their salaries do not reflect a long-term financially viable policy with the current situation. Accordingly, Cornell is engaging in the Resilient Cornell initiative to bring costs and staffing levels in line with available revenues. Within the past month, Cornell has borrowed $1 billion in taxable bonds, adding debt service to Cornell’s budget for years to come.

In addition, Cornell is now operating under a collective bargaining agreement with the Cornell Graduate Students United – UE that has increased the costs of hosting graduate students. Finally, Cornell is currently reviewing the professional status of its Lecturers and Instructors. Cornell is adding new titles, such as Professors of Practice or Teaching Professors, for roles that do not include all three of the traditional faculty duties of teaching, research, and extension (or public service).

In the past, Cornell has argued that schools should collect survey data for specific academic disciplines. For example, the Law School should look at salary data from other law schools, or the Brooks School should look at salary data from other public policy schools. This is because the AAUP’s institution-wide survey can misrepresent how competitive a university really is in attracting faculty. 

The Cornell Review reached out to Prof. David Bateman, President of the Cornell Chapter of the AAUP, and he provided the following comment:

“Across almost all faculty categories, Cornell pays significantly less than the average of our peer institutions. This disparity is greatest at the level of full professors, but it applies for instructors as well as assistant and associate professors (lecturers might be too varying a category to be of much use in comparisons). This at a time when the cost of living in Ithaca and Tompkins County is rapidly increasing, and many of the amenities that Ithacans enjoy are being priced out (for example, the community spaces in the Watershed and the Downstairs, the owner of which wrote a powerful message). Cornell could begin to rectify this by paying its fair share in lieu of taxes or to the school board, which would ease some of the strain on property taxes. It has consistently failed to do so. 

“We should also recognize that Cornell is nearer the top end of an increasingly stratified and unequal higher educational system. We really do need a new vision for higher education in the United States, one that expands access and redistributes from the wealthiest institutions to those that serve the largest number, and that reshapes relationships with broader communities so that the benefits of a college or university are not outweighed by their costs. Instead, we get a political assault on academic freedom that should offend everyone from libertarians to socialists.”

While the data shows that Cornell is toward the bottom of the Ivy League in terms of pay, there are many non-monetary issues that factor into Cornell’s faculty compensation and the overall motivation of its faculty.