By Debra Bradley Ruder

Gazette Staff

Harvard's junior faculty in some fields are paid less than elsewhere, and junior faculty in all fields would value more research support and attention from their senior faculty colleagues, according to a new study.

Those observations were echoed on March 11, when the Faculty of Arts and Sciences (FAS) addressed the topic of junior faculty recruitment and support at its monthly meeting.

The discussion, which drew an unusually large number of junior and senior faculty to the microphones, was triggered by a study -- carried out for the FAS Resources Committee -- of salary levels, research support, and other benefits for assistant and associate professors.

In the area of compensation, the Committee learned that junior faculty salary levels in some fields are "significantly" below the market. Starting salaries in the humanities are often in line with those of other major universities, but those in the social sciences and natural sciences are below market levels by amounts ranging from zero to $10,000 or more, depending on the department and field.

The Economics Department, for one, has a tough time recruiting junior faculty, noted David Cutler, the John L. Loeb Associate Professor of the Social Sciences. With salaries well below many other institutions, and with less-than-ideal research support and career development, "At some point, it becomes fairly difficult to convince people to come to Harvard," he said.

Although faculty at the meeting agreed on the need to adjust junior faculty salaries, they disagreed on whether Harvard should scrap its defined salary scales for nontenured faculty and, instead, follow the market and set salaries individually.

For example, William Paul, the Mallinckrodt Professor of Applied Physics, said he was proud to belong to a society of scholars where Sanskrit experts and physicists received comparable pay. He suggested raising the base salary for all junior faculty by $10,000.

Regarding paid leave, a number of professors -- including Professor of Romance Languages and Literatures Mary Gaylord and Professor of History Susan Pedersen -- applauded the proposal to give a term of paid leave to junior faculty in the "alpha scale" departments who are promoted from assistant to associate professor.

(The FAS has two salary scales. Junior faculty in departments on the alpha scale have a term of paid leave for those with contracts of five years or more. Junior faculty in departments on the beta scale have a somewhat higher salary but no paid leave.)

A number of faculty favored the idea of making housing benefits more equitable and flexible by replacing the current subsidy for those who rent University-owned property with an across-the-board allowance toward the costs of housing, child care, and other living expenses.

The Resources Committee, in a "discussion paper," also proposed giving junior faculty greater flexibility in research support by transforming the $800 travel allowance for conferences and scholarly meetings into an unrestricted research fund.

Career Development

Several faculty members -- as well as the Committee -- underscored the importance of mentoring by senior faculty.

"Many junior faculty do not feel that they have sufficient interaction with their senior colleagues," the discussion paper states. "While junior faculty in some departments have substantial and extensive interaction with their tenured colleagues, those in others have only limited contact."

To address this, one department has created small research groups of senior and junior faculty, graduate students, and undergraduates that meet periodically to present papers for discussion.

Associate Professor of Astronomy Alyssa Goodman said junior faculty often take lucrative offers from outside Harvard because the chances of tenure here are often relatively low [given the small number of openings each year]. The tight academic job market makes people nervous, she said.

"It is clear that more attention must be given, department by department, to these concerns of our junior colleagues," the report states. "Making stellar junior appointments and nourishing their careers must be one of our highest priorities."