University President Frederick Lawrence announced at last Thursday’s faculty meeting that the University is no longer running at a deficit. Brandeis will end the 2015 fiscal year with a surplus and with a draw rate from the endowment of only 5.9 percent, down from 6.8 percent at the start of Lawrence’s term. Provost and Senior Vice President for Academic Affairs Lisa Lynch added that the surplus is expected to hold for the next 10 years. This is particularly good news as it is coming earlier than predicted; Lawrence had previously announced that the University would operate at a balanced budget by fiscal year 2016 or 2017. In Lawrence’s words, “It’s a position of stability, a position that allows us to think about where we want to make investments going forward.”

This board applauds the hard work of the administration in balancing the University’s finances, as well as generating a surplus ahead of schedule. However, as the administration begins considering their “investments going forward,” we urge them to uphold their goals made in Goal 5 of the Strategic Plan from last year and consider investing this surplus at least in part into the very thing that makes Brandeis a strong academic institution: our faculty.

Data from the American Association of University Professors shows that Brandeis professors are consistently paid less than professors at peer institutions, including Colgate University, Wellesley University and Tufts University. Brandeis full professors are being paid an average of $130,800 this academic year, less than last year’s average of $131,400. They earn the least out of professors in any college within our athletic conference, as well as less than Quinnipiac University ($132,500) and Bryant University ($148,200), both of which have smaller endowments than Brandeis. In total, Brandeis full professors are in the 60th percentile for pay from doctoral institutions and are the 16th highest-paid professors out of 48 colleges and universities in Massachusetts, down from 14th highest-paid last year.

In order for the University to remain competitive, it must continue attracting leading academics to teach at Brandeis. While pay for associate and assistant professors is closer in line to that of peer institutions, the fact that average pay for full professors is an alarming trend. The University’s deficit has been a leading focus of the administration for some time, as it inarguably should have been. 

However, now that the University is projected to be holding a surplus for the next 10 years, this board feels that increased pay for professors is both warranted and strategically valuable to the University. Attracting strong students requires attracting strong professors.

Focusing efforts on the needs of professors would also be in line with the University’s strategic plan. Goal 3 of the strategic plan states that “A first-rate University cannot exist without a first-rate faculty. This requires not only rigorous procedures for hiring and promotion, but also salaries, benefits, and academic supports that enable us to compete with our peer institutions.” 

Now that significant progress has been made on Goal 5—financial security and “responsible stewardship”—this board asks that professors, whose knowledge and guidance are the key products the University confers, are not forgotten as the administration begins planning how to use the newly developed surplus.