Wisconsin Chancellor Names Pitt as a Professor Stealer

Pitt has recently been charged with stealing – professors.

In a recent Associated Press article, Chancellor John Wiley was quoted on the University of Wisconsin’s increasingly rapid loss of full-time professors.

“In years past, schools like Pitt or Rutgers, even some of the other major state universities like Ohio State, Michigan State, Iowa and Indiana would not have been able to hire away from Wisconsin. And they are doing that now.”

And it is no wonder either. According to the American Association of University Professors, Wisconsin professors make an average of $103,500 while Pitt professors make an average of $119,500. Ohio State’s main campus offers $117,200 and Rutgers pays out $124,500.

These two schools are considered to be in the same general category of schools. The University of Wisconsin Madison branch is ranked 34 on the U.S News and World Report ranking of the best universities nationwide while Pitt is ranked 57 on the same list.

But Wisconsin is fighting back. As part of an effort to keep professors at their various campuses, the Wisconsin state legislature is debating a measure that would set aside $10 million a year to keep their faculty at the state-run university.

It’s not just pay between schools that are drastically different, but between academic fields as well. A 2006 study of its membership showed that professors in business, health fields and law make substantially more than those teaching fields in the humanities –such as English. English literature, communications and library science have not seen significant changes in their overall income.