Business First Editorial - October 21, 2005
To the editor:
In "CSCC labor impasse results in strike talk" (October 21), Columbus State Vice President Will Kopp claimed that CSCC professors make between $57,820 and $96,385 annually. This demands clarification.
Columbus State has four faculty ranks: instructor, assistant professor, associate professor, and full professor. The 3-quarter base salary (used throughout education as the definition of "salary" to provide figures that can be accurately compared) for full professors as of June 30, 2005 was $57,820; the top 3-quarter salary for full professors was $79,907. A faculty member could earn over $96,000 only if, in addition to working the regular 3-quarter academic year, a full professor with more than 18 years' experience as a full professor taught a full load of classes Summer Quarter or took on substantial overloads (extra classes) during the rest of the regular academic year. Summer work is not guaranteed.
As of June 30, Columbus State employed 67 full professors (25% of all faculty), 49 associate professors, 57 assistant professors, and 89 instructors (34% of all faculty). Instructors, the largest group of faculty, earn between $37,956 and--with one exception-- $46,708. A more accurate statement by the administration would reveal that CSCC faculty receive salaries that range from $37,956 to $79,907.
Mr. Kopp claims that all W-2 earning are "salary." Yet salary is but one component of W-2 earnings. To illustrate the point, Columbus State's President, Dr. Val Moeller, is paid an annual salary plus a range of benefits. In 2004 she received $216,157 in salary, payment for her entire employee share of State Teachers Retirement System contribution (worth more than $20,000), a car allowance, memberships in several country clubs, payment of dues to professional organizations, an annual $12,000 housing allowance and a $75,000 longevity bonus. Was her salary nearly $325,000? Her income was that much, but her income in a given year is not the same as her salary, unless one is using a twisted meaning of the word.
Columbus State administrators continue to use misleading terminology and numbers that allow them to claim that CSCC is paying "salaries" comparable to other community colleges, when in fact their figures represent 4-quarter compensation compared to the 3-quarter compensation at other schools. (Also of note: more than 85% of Columbus State's full-time faculty teach 4 quarters out of the year, with more than 80% teaching full-time year 'round. This figure is unequaled in the nation.)
Words have meanings in journalism as well as in business, and this particular use of words by Columbus State administrators misleads Business First, its readers, and the community that the college serves.
Steve Abbott, President
Columbus State Education Association