Colleagues -

Recently, an article appeared in the Commercial Appeal comparing the salaries of female and male faculty members. Unfortunately, the article contained highly summarized data that can lead to erroneous conclusions. We are sending you data that we also provided to the reporter, but the data were not used in the analysis. As you will see in the tables below, our current salary data show that, when considered by rank and by discipline, males and females at the Assistant and Associate, and Professor levels are at comparable rates of pay except in cases where we have too few numbers for meaningful comparisons. Please note that the data we are presenting at http://academics.memphis.edu/provost/excel1.pdf and http://academics.memphis.edu/provost/excel2.pdf are current. We are analyzing the new salary data for January 2003 now and plan to post those figures on the Provost’s Web site within the next few days.

It is important to note that the rates of pay among male and female faculty recruited in Academic Years 2000, 2001, and 2002 are comparable, reflecting our emphasis on equity in the hiring of new faculty. However, we have far too few female faculty in professorial ranks, reflecting hiring patterns of the past.

We are happy to report that we have a solid core of female faculty at the associate level that should populate the top ranks sometime soon. Nevertheless, this fact does not relieve us of responsibility for promoting more women to the top level of the academic ranking system. Consequently, we have asked Dr. Barbara Ellen Smith to chair a University committee with responsibility for analyzing the salary data that are available, and for recommending programs to support women in their quests for tenure and promotion.

Gender equity is a very important issue that we will continue to address in recruitment, retention, promotion, tenure and salaries. As merit/equity funds are made available, we will continue to address inequities of all types.

Please contact either or both of us if you want to discuss your particular situation or make observations to improve our work at The University of Memphis.

Shirley Raines
Ralph Faudree