Number 127, Winter 2001

TO HELP chairs negotiate the provisions of their service more effectively, participants at the 1999 summer seminar in Polson, Montana, asked the ADE to conduct a survey to document the types of support and compensation that chairs in the ADE community receive. Lawrence Rodgers, chair of the English department at Kansas State University, created a draft that became the basis for a questionnaire the ADE posted on its Web site from March to May 2000. Member chairs were invited by e-mail to complete the questionnaire, and chairs of 248 of the 725 member departments responded--34.2% of the membership. Of these, 241 were from United States institutions and 7 from Canadian ones.

In the United States-based response group, as table 1 indicates, larger institutions and those granting advanced degrees are overrepresented, as they are in the ADE membership. The table compares the 241 United States respondents in three dimensions--institutional size, type (PhD-, MA-, BA-, or AA-granting), and sector (public, private, or private church-related)--with a universe of 3,029 higher education institutions from the 1997-98 file of institutional characteristics from the National Center for Education Statistics. (The 3,029 institutions are those accredited by an agency recognized by the United States Secretary of Education and included in the Carnegie classification of institutions; private for-profit institutions and institutions granting only first-professional degrees or first certificates have been excluded.) Despite this disproportionate representation among respondents, the survey gives chairs a snapshot of compensation and support in both ADE departments overall and in the institutions similar to theirs. Since the data show that size, type, and sector make a significant difference in the kind and amount of compensation chairs receive, breaking down the responses in this regard is relevant to whatever discussions chairs or potential chairs have with their institutions.

Results for the respondents overall are shown in tables 2 through 6, while tables 7 through 15 sort responses by institutional size, type, or sector and tables 16 and 17 by gender. Table 2 lists, in descending frequency, kinds of compensation: release time from teaching, an annual stipend, additional discretionary funds, a permanent addition to base salary, and a paid leave or sabbatical. Table 3 displays--for the 75% of respondents who receive an annual stipend, a permanent supplement to base salary, or both--the range in amount. (Because 4.8% of chairs receive both, this is a lower number than the combination of those answering yes to receiving annual stipends and to receiving permanent supplements in table 2.) Table 4 shows the compensation of respondents as they compare their packages with those of other chairs in their institutions. Most respondents find their packages to be average, while roughly similar groups find theirs below or much below average or above or much above average. The number of courses taught by respondents before becoming chair and while serving as chair (in 1999-2000) are represented in table 5 for institutions on the semester system and in table 6 for those on the quarter system. (Since the number of respondents on the quarter system totals only 21, we have not included percentages for that table or broken down the figures for kind of institution in subsequent tables.)

In tables 7 through 15, chairs can get a more precise sense of how their compensation and support compares with those of chairs in similar institutions. To some degree the figures of size, type, and sector are interrelated, since PhD- and MA-granting institutions tend to be large, and public universities include a greater proportion of large PhD- and MA-granting institutions than smaller BA-granting colleges. (Unfortunately the few responses from chairs at community colleges reflect the small representation of this group in the ADE membership.) Variations do show up, however, in the different ways of sorting responses. While patterns of course release are similar in public, private independent, and private church-related institutions, patterns of kind and amount of financial compensation vary significantly among them; as a result we represent the latter but not the former in the tables.

The two tables (13 and 14) showing courses taught before and during service as chair list the number of respondents in each category for number of courses taught per year (0 through 10). Thus they record course release not on an individual basis but as trends for each group. The trends are dramatic: in institutions of 2,001-5,000 students, for example, nearly 60% of respondents were teaching 8 or more courses before they became chair, while more than 80% were teaching 4 or fewer courses after. Significant course release is clearly one of the most widespread ways to support chairs in their administrative work and should be sought by chairs who are not receiving it.

Table 15 displays by institutional size the number of chairs who receive staff support, showing the most significant variable shared by respondents at larger institutions to be the provision of a personal secretary or assistant chair.

In tables 16 and 17 we record the gender of chairs. Among our respondents, a disproportionate number of men chair departments of large institutions and those granting postbaccalaureate degrees, while a disproportionate number of women chair departments in small institutions and those granting BA or AA degrees. This result will not surprise most observers, though the extent of the difference may. Compensation also differs in particular areas and to some extent overall: the percentage of women chairs who receive no stipend or benefits (20.7%) is double the percentage of men (10.4%) in the same situation. It is difficult to reach conclusions in the distribution of dollar size of compensation between men and women in small institutions because of the low percentage of respondents receiving financial compensation at all: 31.0% of chairs from institutions of 2,000 students or fewer, for instance. In institutions of 5,001 students and greater, where a significant proportion receives financial compensation (90.0%), women and men are represented roughly proportionately in range of stipend or supplement size. The differences in staff support by gender of chair closely follow the differences in size of institution. Provision of a department secretary or student aides is virtually the same between men and women: 57.3% of men and 61.0% of women are provided with department secretaries; 43.3% of men and 46.3% of women have student aides. Provision of a personal secretary, however, is 35.4% for men compared to 25.6% for women, and of an assistant chair 29.9% compared with 15.9%. (These figures for staff support by gender are not represented in the tables.)

Lawrence Rogers, in the following article, discusses how chairs might use this and other information to negotiate a compensation package that not only is best for them during their term of office but also takes into account such other considerations as opportunity costs resulting from their diversion from scholarly activity (crucial given that only 21.0% of respondents listed a permanent supplement to base salary as part of their compensation package), not to mention improvements that might be agreed on for the department as a whole. A chair at one of the summer seminars revealed that his successor had negotiated a doubling of the department's operating budget as part of his recruitment package; the outgoing chair concluded from this that the most effective way for a chair to improve the outlook of his or her department is to resign immediately. We hope that this survey does not lead to resignations, however, but to informed, fair, and productive compensation and support packages for department chairs in all sizes, types, and sectors of institutions.

Work Cited

Table 1
Institutional Characteristics of the 241 Respondents from the United States Compared
with the Universe of 3, 029 Two- and Four-Year United States Higher Education Institutions

			Universe of 3,029
	Survey respondents		Institutions
	No.	%	%
Public	137	56.8	50.1
Private, independent	49	20.3	20.5
Private, church-related	55	22.8	29.3
Doctorate	111	46.1	18.7
Master's	82	34.0	28.9
Bachelor's	40	16.6	17.9
Associate's	8	3.3	34.5
1,000 or fewer students	11	4.6	27.8
1,001-2,000	31	12.9	18.8
2,001-5,000	56	23.2	25.4
5,001-15,000	70	29.0	21.0
More than 15,000	73	30.3	7.1

Table 2
Compensation Received as Department Chair (248 Respondents)

Table 3
Dollar Amount of Annual Stipend or Permanent Supplement
to Base Salary (248 Respondents)

	No.	%
Less than $1,000	3	1.2
$1,000-$3,000	55	22.2
$3,001-$5,000	35	14.1
$5,001-$10,000	48	19.4
$10,001-$15,000	22	8.9
More than $15,000	20	8.1
No response	65	26.2

Table 4
Compensation Package as Compared by Respondents
with Those of Other Department Chairs at Respondent's
Institution (248 Respondents)

	No.	%
Much above average	8	3.2
Above average	42	16.9
Average	142	57.3
Below average	30	12.1
Much below average	14	5.6
No response	12	4.8

Table 5
Number of Courses Taught per Year (Semester System) before Service
as Chair, during Service as Chair

	Before		During (1999-2000)
	No. of Responses	%	No. of Responses	%
Courses
None	0	0.0	5	2.4
One	0	0.0	13	6.3
Two	3	1.4	87	42.0
Three	6	2.9	14	6.7
Four	45	21.7	48	23.2
Five	28	13.5	5	2.4
Six	52	25.1	21	10.1
Seven	3	1.5	3	1.4
Eight	61	29.5	5	2.4
Nine	1	0.5	0	0.0
Ten	6	2.9	0	0.0
Total	205		201

Note: Two respondents for Before and six During were omitted because categories were left blank.

Table 6
Number of Courses Taught per Year (Quarter System)
before Service as Chair, during Service as Chair

	Number of Responses
Courses	Before	During (1999-2000)
None	0	2
One	0	4
Two	0	1
Three	3	7
Four	3	0
Five	2	1
Six	8	0
Seven	2	1
Eight	1	0
Nine	0	1
Ten	0	0
Eleven	0	0
Twelve	2	0
Total	21	17

Note: One response for Before and five for During were omitted because categories were left blank.

Table 7
Annual Stipend or Permanent Supplement to Salary by Institutional Size

Kind of Compensation			Institutional Size
Annual Stipend	Permanent Supplement		2,000 or fewer		2,001-5,000		5,001-15,000		More than 15,000
			No.	%	No.	%	No.	%	No.	%
Yes	Yes		0	0.0	0	0.0	2	2.8	10	12.8
No	Yes		3	7.1	4	7.1	8	11.1	10	12.8
Yes	No		10	23.8	34	60.7	52	72.2	53	67.9
No	No		29	69.0	18	32.1	10	13.9	5	6.4
Total			42		56		72		78

Table 8
Annual Stipend or Permanent Supplement to Salary by Institutional Type

Kind of Compensation		Institutional Type
Annual Stipend	Permanent Supplement	Doctorate		Master's		Bachelor's		Associate's
		No.	%	No.	%	No.	%	No.	%
Yes	Yes	11	9.3	1	1.2	0	0.0	0	0.0
No	Yes	10	8.5	13	15.9	2	5.0	0	0.0
Yes	No	89	75.4	42	51.2	15	37.5	3	37.5
No	No	8	6.8	26	31.7	23	57.5	5	62.5
Total		118		82		40		8

Table 9
Annual Stipend or Permanent Supplement to Salary by Institutional Sector

Kind of Compensation		Institutional Sector
Annual Stipend	Permanent Supplement	Public		Private, Independent		Private, Church-Related
		No.	%	No.	%	No.	%
Yes	Yes	10	7.0	1	2.0	1	1.8
No	Yes	20	14.0	3	6.0	2	3.6
Yes	No	91	63.6	28	56.0	30	54.5
No	No	22	15.4	18	36.0	22	40.0
Total		143		50		55

Table 10
Dollar Amount of Annual Stipend or Permanent Supplement to Base Salary by Institutional Size

		Institutional Size
Dollar Range		2,000 or fewer		2,001-5,000		5,001-15,000		More than 15,000
		No.	%	No.	%	No.	%	No.	%
Less than $1,000		1	2.4	0	0.0	0	0.0	2	2.6
$1,000-$3,000		9	21.4	24	42.9	19	26.4	3	3.8
$3,001-$5,000		2	4.8	7	12.5	10	13.9	16	20.5
$5,001-$10,000		1	2.4	4	7.1	20	27.8	23	29.5
$10,001-$15,000		0	0.0	2	3.6	10	13.9	10	12.8
More than $15,000		0	0.0	0	0.0	5	6.9	15	19.2
No response		29	69.0	19	33.9	8	11.1	9	11.5
Total		42		56		72		78

Table 11
Dollar Amount of Annual Stipend or Permanent Supplement to Base Salary by Institutional Type

		Institutional Type
	Doctorate		Master's		Bachelor's		Associate's
Dollar Range	No.	%	No.	%	No.	%	No.	%
Less than $1,000	0	0.0	2	2.4	1	2.5	0	0.0
$1,000-$3,000	16	13.6	27	32.9	11	27.5	1	12.5
$3,001-$5,000	23	19.5	7	8.5	5	12.5	0	0.0
$5,001-$10,000	35	29.7	11	13.4	0	0.0	2	25.0
$10,001-$15,000	17	14.4	5	6.1	0	0.0	0	0.0
More than $15,000	18	15.3	2	2.4	0	0.0	0	0.0
No response	9	7.6	28	34.1	23	57.5	5	62.5
Total	118		82		40		8

Table 12
Dollar Amount of Annual Stipend or Permanent Supplement to Base Salary by Institutional Sector

	Institutional Sector
	Public		Private, Independent		Private, Church-Related
Dollar Range	No.	%	No.	%	No.	%
Less than $1,000	2	1.4	1	2.0	0	0.0
$1,000-$3,000	25	17.5	10	20.0	20	36.4
$3,001-$5,000	23	16.1	6	12.0	6	10.9
$5,001-$10,000	33	23.1	9	18.0	6	10.9
$10,001-$15,000	17	11.9	4	8.0	1	1.8
More than $15,000	18	12.6	2	4.0	0	0.0
No response	25	17.5	18	36.0	22	40.0
Total	143		50		55

Table 13
Number of Courses Taught per Year (Semester System) before Service as Chair, during Service as Chair, by Institutional Size

	Institutional Size
	2,000 or fewer		2,001-5,000		5,001-15,000		More than 15,000
Courses	Before	During	Before	During	Before	During	Before	During
None	0	0	0	0	0	2	0	3
One	0	0	0	0	0	3	0	10
Two	0	0	0	7	2	37	1	43
Three	0	0	1	7	2	6	3	1
Four	2	11	3	24	10	12	30	1
Five	2	2	5	2	7	1	14	0
Six	10	12	10	7	20	2	12	0
Seven	1	2	1	1	1	0	0	0
Eight	16	5	25	0	17	0	3	0
Nine	0	0	1	0	0	0	0	0
Ten	0	0	2	0	3	0	1	0
Total	31	32	47	48	62	63	64	58

Table 14
Number of Courses Taught per Year (Semester System) before Service as Chair, by Institutional Type

	Institutional Type
	Doctorate		Master's		Bachelor's		Associate's
Courses	Before	During	Before	During	Before	During	Before	During
None	0	1	0	1	0	0	0	3
One	0	11	0	2	0	0	0	0
Two	2	63	1	22	0	1	0	1
Three	6	5	0	7	0	2	0	0
Four	41	7	2	22	2	17	0	2
Five	21	0	3	2	4	1	0	0
Six	20	2	18	11	14	7	0	1
Seven	0	1	3	2	0	0	0	0
Eight	4	0	45	2	10	3	2	0
Nine	1	0	0	0	0	0	0	0
Ten	0	0	0	0	1	0	5	0
Total	95	90	72	71	31	31	7	7

Table 15
Staff Support Received by Chair by Institutional Size (248 Respondents)

Kind of Support, with	Number	Percentage	Number of
Institutional Size	Receiving	Receiving	Respondents
Personal secretary
2,000 or fewer	2	4.8	42
2,001-5,000	1	1.8	56
5,001-15,000	24	33.3	72
More than 15,000	52	66.7	78
Total	79	31.9
Department secretary
2,000 or fewer	22	52.4	42
2,001-5,000	46	82.1	56
5,001-15,000	44	61.1	72
More than 15,000	33	42.3	78
Total	145	58.5
Assistant chair
2,000 or fewer	1	2.4	42
2,001-5,000	3	5.4	56
5,001-15,000	9	12.5	72
More than 15,000	49	62.8	78
Total	62	25.0
Student aides
2,000 or fewer	19	45.2	42
2,001-5,000	32	57.1	56
5,001-15,000	30	41.7	72
More than 15,000	29	37.2	78
Total	110	44.4

Table 16
Gender of Chairs by Institutional Size, Type, and Sector (246 Respondents)

	164 Men (66.7%)		82 Women (33.3%)
	No.	%	No.	%	Number of Respondents
Institutional size
Less than 1,000	1	9.1	10	90.9	11
1,000-2,000	17	56.7	13	43.3	30
2,001-5,000	32	58.2	23	41.8	55
5,001-15,000	55	76.4	17	23.6	72
More than 15,000	59	75.6	19	24.4	78
Institutional type
Doctorate	93	78.8	25	21.2	118
Master's	49	61.3	31	38.8	80
Bachelor's	19	47.5	21	52.5	40
Associate's	3	37.5	5	62.5	8
Institutional sector
Public	104	73.2	38	26.8	142
Private, independent	31	62.0	19	38.0	50
Private, church-related	29	53.7	25	46.3	54

Note: Two respondents who did not answer the question about gender have been deducted from the totals.

Table 17
Kinds of Compensation Received, by Gender (246 Respondents)

	Number and Percentage of Respondents
	Men		Women		Men and Women
Kinds of Compensation	No.	%	No.	%	No.	%
Annual stipend	119	72.6	41	50.0	160	65.0
Permanent supplement	27	16.5	10	12.2	37	15.0
One-semester leave	12	7.3	9	11.0	21	8.5
One-year leave	10	6.1	3	3.7	13	5.3
Travel fund	26	15.9	16	19.5	42	17.1
Extra stipend or benefits
Some	147	89.6	65	79.3	212	86.2
None	17	10.4	17	20.7	34	13.8

Note: Two respondents who did not answer the question about gender have been deducted from the totals.

© 2001 by the Association of Departments of English. All Rights Reserved.