Gallaudet AAUP professors say morale is low due to low salaries

Alex (Daily Moth): Several professors at Gallaudet University have been saying for months that the university is severely unpaying its faculty because their average salaries are 20% less compared with other colleges in the D.C. area.

Last fall, Gallaudet’s AAUP (American Association of University Professors) chapter got an outside expert to do a financial analysis of Gallaudet, Dr. Howard Bunsis.

He found that from 2019 to 2022, salaries and wages more than doubled for general administration (president, administrators, C-level jobs) while it went down for academic instruction and research.

Here is an interview with Gallaudet AAUP.

Derek Braun: Hello, my name is Derek Braun. I’m the AAUP President for our local chapter. I’ve been teaching at Gallaudet for 28 years. 5 years as an adjunct and 23 years as a full-time professor in biology.

Dani Hunt: I’m Dani Hunt. I’m the vice-president of our AAUP chapter. I’ve been teaching at Gallaudet for 10 years. I’m a tenured faculty in the Department of Interpretation and Translation.

Tonay Stremlau: I’m Tonya Stremlau. I’ve been teaching in the English department at Gallaudet for 28 years. I’m an at-large member on the AAUP committee.

Alex: Dr. Bunsis said Gallaudet administrators, when compared with peer (universities), pay themselves the highest. For faculty pay, it’s the 2nd or 3rd lowest. So there’s a big difference.

[Video clip from Dr. Bunsis’ financial analysis speech]

Dr. Bunsis, via interpreter: When compared to peer universities, Gallaudet pays more on administrative costs.

Compared with peers, it’s a clear conclusion that Gallaudet spends very high on its administration. No doubt about it.

[End video clips] (For the full video from Dr. Bunsis, check the link at the bottom of the transcript)

Alex: After Dr. Bunsis released his report, what was the impact?

Braun: The response from the administration is that they mostly disagree with the audit. They made that very clear.

Stremlau: During Brad Hermes’ speech, he told us that Gallaudet will not give general pay increases this year. They will not. Also, our president, Cordano, told us that Gallaudet is broke.

Braun: The average Gallaudet professor earns $86,500 a year. That’s the average based on the most recent report to the federal government (IPEDS) system.

Hunt: I did a search for what is the standard of living for a D.C. resident to be comfortable in the city. I think the most recent number I found was for 2018 or something. All said it has to be over $100,000 for a family of four to live in D.C. It’s got to be over $100k.

Stremlau: It’s a huge impact on morale. I feel like Gallaudet doesn’t care.

Alex: Do you believe that Gallaudet can afford to pay its professors? What do you feel is ideal?

Braun: Our calculations say it will cost Gallaudet between — it depends on how much increase there is — but the full amount would cost Gallaudet just under five million dollars to become equal to D.C. area salaries. Gallaudet has this. They earn full tuition from students and they have a huge amount of money from the federal government. They can afford it. Look at the big picture. If you look at the details, it’s easy to get lost.

Alex: What do you think is the reason why Gallaudet isn’t simply paying the $5 million? What are the reasons?

Hunt: From watching administrators during their presentations, a common statement is that it’s not sustainable. So if they paid $5 million, then where will they find another $5 million for next year? In two or three years? They said they can’t sustain that kind of payment for faculty. My question is whether you can sustain that kind of pay you’re giving to administrators.

Stremlau: It’s becoming harder to recruit new faculty to come and teach. It’s hard to find good and qualified faculty who both have the right degree and can sign.

Alex: As mentioned in the interview, Gallaudet’s AAUP said if university administration wants to pay its faculty a salary that’s equivalent to what others get in the D.C. area, it would have to allocate an additional $5 million a year.

Dr. Bunsis said in an email to “The Daily Moth” that Gallaudet can easily afford $5 million because the university reported it had over $200 million in cash and investments at the end of 2022.

[Screenshot of email from Dr. Bunsis.] It reads, “Here are the variables that demonstrate how easily GU can afford $5 million: Cash and investments were $205 million at the end of 2022. Unrestricted reserves were $48.5 million at the end of 2022. Annual excess cash flows were the following for the last 7 years (2016 to 2022): $15.4 million, 17.6 million, 19.6 million, 12.0 million, $9.5 million, $16.0 million

Alex: The university also spends very large amounts on consultants, advisers and professional fees with over $100 million spent in this category from 2020 to 2022.

[Screenshot of email from Dr. Bunsis.] Question: Can you share your insights on how much Gallaudet spends on consulting services? And what does the numbers tell you?

Answer: The audited statements for Gallaudet report a category named consultants, advisers and other professional fees. The amounts in this category were: $29.0 million in 2018, $32.3 million in 2019, $30.1 million in 2020, $30.4 million in 2021, $43.6 million in 2022. How much of this is purely for consultants is not clear, but the total amounts for this category are very large.

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Alex: To make this situation more sensitive, according to an October 2023 report from Inside Higher Ed, Gallaudet President Roberta “Bobbi” Cordano received $889,100 in compensation for the fiscal year that ended in September 2022.

[Screenshot of article from Inside Higher Ed] Headline: “Conflicting Numbers Fly in Gallaudet Faculty Pay Quarrel. Date: Oct. 19, 2023. Excerpt: “Regarding administrative pay increases, the AAUp has pointed out a large recent raise for the president, Roberta J. Cordano. An IRS form filed this year, for the federal fiscal year that ended in September 2022, shows that Cordano received $889,100 in compensation, up from $594,000 in the prior year.”]

Alex: In that report, Gallaudet AAUP members criticized pay raises for Gallaudet administrators.

I asked Gallaudet’s AAUP president Dr. Braun whether there was any kind of pushback for the report.

Braun: In October, after that interview, the provost called AAUP members into a meeting because she was upset about the interview. To be clear, the national-level AAUP organization believes in academic freedom, which includes the right to talk to the press. In that meeting, the provost and the university faculty chair were sitting there. Both accused the AAUP of burning down Gallaudet. They also berated us, telling us we had no respect, and other things. They kept on for almost 2 hours. One of our committee members broke down crying. But they just kept on berating us. When that meeting was over, later that week, the provost sent out a campus-wide email criticizing the AAUP for what we did in talking with the press. We believe that meeting and that email was an act of retaliation and violated a law called National Labor Relations Act (NLRA) that is under Title 29 in the U.S. code.

Alex: Wow. So you feel it’s hostile. There’s no type of understanding that you need pay increases or a willingness to negotiate. Maybe a little increase in salary or you get more paid time off. Nothing of that kind. It’s more of “You must accept what I say.”

Braun: Right.

Alex: You’re beneath them.

Braun: Yes. The administration’s statements have felt degrading on Gallaudet faculty. It’s like we don’t deserve more, that we should be happy and grateful for what we have. Even though most of us are struggling.

Alex: Is there anything you want to add?

Braun: In #WeAreGallaudet, Gallaudet announced that the Board of Trustees authorized a $5 million for general pay raises. It will take effect in FY 2025, which means it will start this October and forward. But that $5 million depends on whether the campus community meets metrics that seem to have to do with revenue and enrollment, but they didn’t say what the metrics are. So there’s going to be small pay increases for all employees. The (administration) also said there will be another $7 million later as well for a total amount of $12 million over several years.

Alex: Do you feel these amounts will get you closer to what you want for faculty salaries, what you feel is fair?

Braun: It won’t meet what is fair because faculty are on average 20% underpaid. So it will take a lot more than just $5 million or $12 million because we are talking about the entire campus. Gallaudet has roughly 900-something employees.

Alex: So it’s spread out. It’s really not much for everyone.

Braun: It helps. We won’t say no. But it’s still not enough.

Alex: Gallaudet’s AAUP chapter said in this new year, they are still frustrated with a lack of transparency from Gallaudet’s administration. There’s still tension there.

Gallaudet AAUP Information/Audit: https://gallaudet-aaup.org/

Inside Higher Ed: https://shorturl.at/fX159