Dartmouth professors' salaries rose more than the national average during the last fiscal year, according to the latest issue of the Bulletin of the American Association of University Professors.
The average full professor at Dartmouth makes a salary of $80,500 a year, the average associate professor makes $54,800 a year and the average assistant professor makes $45,000 a year, according to the survey.
Adjusted for factors such as retirement benefits and other so-called "fringe benefits," the average professor's compensation is $101,900, the average associate professor gets $69,900 and the average assistant professors receives $55,300.
Prices nationwide rose by 2.7 percent last year while the average faculty member at a typical American institution of higher education received a raise of 3.3 percent. The average full professor at Dartmouth earned a raise of 4.7 percent, according to the survey.
Compared to other Ivy League schools, Dartmouth ranks sixth in average salaries of full professors.
Only Brown University has a lower average salary for full professors while Cornell University has the same average as Dartmouth, according to the survey.
The highest average salary for full professors in the Ancient Eight is Harvard University with $104,200.
Princeton University ranks second in the Ivies with an average salry of $98,200.
Acting Dean of the Faculty Karen Wetterhahn said one reason for Dartmouth's relatively low ranking is that the figures include average salaries for faculty at all of the schools associated with an institution.
At Dartmouth, she said, the salaries at the College's three professional schools are comparable with the ones at the undergraduate College. However, she said there are some institutions where the professors in professional schools earn more than their undergraduate counterparts.
The College has been pushing hard in recent years to keep its average compensation rate comparable to other top-level institutions. Wetterhahn said it is important for a college or university to have competitive faculty salaries because it is a good way to convince top faculty to come to an institution.
"The key is that it's important for faculty compensation to be competitive," she said. "Just as we want to recruit the best students, we want to attract the best faculty."
Wetterhahn said in order to maintain competitiveness among faculty salaries, the Committee on the Faculty releases an annual report comparing the salaries at Dartmouth to salaries at other comparable institutions.
According to Wetterhahn, historically the schools Dartmouth rates itself against are Brown, University of Chicago, Columbia, Cornell, Duke, Johns Hopkins University, Northwestern, Princeton, University of Rochester and Yale.
Faculty raises are then based on that report, she said. Of those schools, Dartmouth's average salary ranks ahead of only Brown and Rochester.
Economic Department Chair Jack Menge said each department has a pay schedule it generally adheres to when hiring new faculty members.
Menge said salary is not the only thing considered by prospective faculty when they are being recruited.
"A group of stimulating colleagues is very important," said Menge."If you don't have that you have real problems hiring quality people."
