• Professors' salaries in Wisconsin are less than the national averages.
• Marquette professors make $11,300 less on average than professors nationwide.
• The lag in pay could lead to higher faculty turnover and a deterioration of quality of education, some officials say.

University professors in Wisconsin make less than the national averages, according to a report released last week by the American Association of University Professors.

The national average faculty salary for public and private doctoral universities is $123,800. Marquette's average is $112,500, according to the report.

Marquette's $11,300 gap ranks between the other two local doctoral universities. The University of Wisconsin-Madison's average is $6,000 less than other public doctoral universities, while the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee is $21,800 behind, according to the report.

The difference in pay is nothing new, according to University of Wisconsin system spokesman David Giroux. Recent attempts to close the gap have met different roadblocks, most recently being the current economic landscape.

"It's (been) a problem (for) as long as I've been with the system, which is eight or nine years," Giroux said. "We've worked with the Board of Regents on a plan calling for a four- or six-year process of building up our pay plans and trying to catch up, but that's been put on hold because of the current economic recession."

He said efforts have been made, but the results just have not been what they desired.

"Historically, the pay increases have fallen short of what we have requested," Giroux said. "I don't want that to sound like blame, in most cases the legislature, especially in recent years, has been facing some real significant challenges. The reality is, however, that leaves us further and further behind our peer groups."

The effect is not only felt by current professors making less money, but the difference in pay hurts the recruiting and retaining of new professors, he said.

"This is where the young up-and-coming professors come to learn the business, to get all the mentoring and cultivation and nurturing that goes into making them an associate professor or a full professor, and then they get cherry-picked by others," Giroux said.

Mark Bradley, the president of the Board of Regents, the governing body of the UW system, agrees. While the UW system is an attractive starting place, qualified professors might move elsewhere if they feel they are not being properly compensated, he said.

"Even if you have adequate pay and people take the job, then they look at the data and realize the state of Wisconsin isn't able to give an adequate raise," Bradley said.

But in terms of faculty turnover, Giroux said the UW system does not expect to see anything out of the ordinary in the near future.

"(Faculty migration is) a phenomenon that we've seen over the years, but it's not something that we expect to spike any time soon," Giroux said.

According to the report, proper salaries are, in part, vital to the economic recovery and well-being of the country.

"Maintaining an outstanding system of higher education requires investments in the faculty members who cultivate the human capital upon which our economy's recovery and future growth will depend," the report stated. "Sadly, the record of the last three decades shows that when measured by the inflation-adjusted salaries paid to college faculty members . our nation is failing."

Jeff Smith, chair of the state legislature's college and universities committee, warned that low salaries could also lead to lower quality of higher education in Wisconsin.

"Hopefully we will be able to recover before our education is depleted to the degree where we are catching up," he said.