STROUP: SALARIES KEY TO QUALITY

You get what you pay for. Southeast Missouri State University President Kala Stroup certainly thinks so.

Since coming to Southeast four years ago, she has overseen pay raises designed to make faculty salaries more comparable to those at other public, regional universities nationwide.

Since 1991, the average salary of a professor at Southeast has climbed from $44,100 to more than $50,600, according to university records.

Associate professors have seen their salaries climb on average from $38,400 to just over $43,000; assistant professors, from $32,400 to more than $35,700; and instructors, from $26,900 to more than $29,600.

Those 1993-94 salary figures put Southeast close to the national average for public, regional schools.

For the current academic year, the median salary nationally for a professor is $51,816; for an associate professor, $42,452; for an assistant professor, $35,873; and for an instructor, $28,631.

Among the 13 public, four-year schools in Missouri, Southeast ranks eighth in average pay for professors, according to the Chronicle of Higher Education, an industry newspaper. The University of Missouri-Rolla (UMR) ranks at the top, with average pay of $66,300 for its professors.

UMR also ranks first in pay for associate professors, $50,000, and assistant professors, $45,400. Southeast ranks sixth in average pay for associate professors and seventh in average pay for assistant professors.

But Southeast ranks second in average pay for instructors. Only Missouri Southern, at $30,300, pays its instructors better, the Chronicle reported.

There's good reason to pay faculty well, Stroup said.

"You are able to keep the very talented faculty and you are also more competitive when you seek to hire new faculty," said Stroup.

In addition, competitive salaries are vital in gaining national accreditation for various academic programs, she said. "You cannot gain some of those accreditations if you've got rock-bottom salaries."

Stroup said Southeast students "should have the opportunity to study with the very finest faculty in the country."

Said Stroup, "Just because they live in Southeast Missouri, does not mean they don't deserve to have very fine faculty."

The university has made progress in hiking faculty pay, as well as that of other employees, she said.

Regent Donald Dickerson agrees. "We have been able, it seems to me, to do a pretty good job ... in getting salaries of faculty into a pretty competitive position," he said at a recent meeting of the regents.

Southeast's personnel costs already total about $30 million, and the university is slated to spend another $1.34 million in the 1994-95 year just for pay raises for faculty and other general-operations employees. That figure doesn't include auxiliary staff like those who deal with the residence halls.

Stroup said she'd like to see Southeast's salaries "up in the top 25 percent nationally of comparable institutions."

But for now, the university has focused on bringing the salaries up to the national average, she said.

In addition to faculty, Stroup said the university has worked hard to raise the pay of clerical, technical and service employees, who typically make far less than a faculty member.

Clerical and service employees make about $14,800 on average, while the pay for technical employees is about $20,500, said Ken Dobbins, Southeast's executive vice president. Professional staff employees make about $31,100 on average, he said.