As faculty leave, some worry University of Wisconsin slipping

University of Wisconsin-Madison has long been an attractive target for elite schools like Harvard and Stanford looking to steal faculty. But Arizona State? Pittsburgh? Florida State?

Dozens of UW-Madison professors left in the past two years, and Chancellor John Wiley said a growing number of them are going to schools that traditionally could not compete with his campus. More than 115 professors reported receiving outside offers last year, the most in 20 years and more than double the number from five years ago.

The trend has alarmed Wisconsin administrators who say some departments are in a crisis after losing prominent teachers and researchers. At stake, they say, are the quality of the state's flagship university, which has traditionally ranked among the nation's top public schools, and coveted research dollars.

Faculty members say the departures accelerated as professors' salaries hit rock bottom among their peers and morale sagged amid budget cuts.

To address the problem, lawmakers are expected to soon consider Gov. Jim Doyle's plan to create a $10 million fund to retain faculty at Madison and other campuses in the UW System. UW-Madison, whose rivals increasingly see it as an easy target, is lobbying hard for the plan.

"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," Wiley said. "And they are doing that now."

Particularly hard hit, Wiley said, have been departments such as political science, English and history.

Joe Soss, a political science professor leaving for the University of Minnesota, said the departures should be a wake-up call to taxpayers to decide whether they want to maintain UW-Madison's status as a world-class university.

"In my case, the decision to respond to an invitation is something that arose after a number of years of frustration with the resources at the university," said Soss, who said Minnesota will increase his $90,000 salary by 50 percent. "I think that you've seen a real upswing in the number of people who are responding to invitations because of what's going on."

Clark Miller, a professor of public affairs, left last year after Arizona State offered to increase his $64,000 salary to $92,500 and promised more research support. Some colleagues reacted with surprise when they learned of his departure.

"I think that is also part of the danger that UW-Madison faces at the moment: I think it's become a little bit complacent," Miller said. "It's become a little, 'We're very good and we'll always be very good and we don't have to do anything to make sure we stay at the top.'"

Wiley said the university, which maintained its U.S. News & World Report ranking as seventh best public university last year, is doing its best to retain the brightest in the face of decreasing salaries.

A UW-Madison full professor earns an average of $103,000 per year, the lowest in its 12-member peer group and well below the $117,000 average at those schools, according to the American Association of University Professors.

University officials say a retention fund in the last state budget helped keep more than 100 key faculty members, including Laura Kiessling, a chemistry professor recently elected into the National Academy of Sciences.

Kiessling said she was recruited by two schools but the university's pay and research package will keep her here for now. Nonetheless, she said she's troubled by "the lack of support for the university."

University statistics show about two-thirds of those who received outside offers have been retained in the past three years but more than 100 have left in total, often taking with them expertise and research funding.

In the last two years alone, the departures cost the university up to $36 million in federal and private research funding, UW-Madison lobbyist Don Nelson said.

The departures of eight faculty members in political science will require a major rebuilding of the department, chair Graham Wilson said.

Wilson said he is leaving because his wife, Virginia Sapiro, received a promotion at Boston University but the department's other losses were troubling.

"The word is out that salaries are lagging behind comparable institutions and that makes you very vulnerable," he said.

Those departing include Jon Pevehouse, an award-winning teacher in international relations who said the University of Chicago will nearly triple his $75,000 salary when he starts there this summer.

Pevehouse, 34, said he was frustrated by low salary increases in his seven years at the university and being told the way to receive a larger raise was to receive better offers elsewhere.

"By the time you look around, your momentum is towards leaving," Pevehouse said.

Seven faculty members left the top-ranked department of educational psychology for positions at other universities since 2002, typically receiving a salary bump of 50 percent, department chair Ronald Serlin said.

The department retained seven others who were recruited but lagging salaries mean the department remains "at great risk of being raided," he said.

Wiley said one of the biggest blows was in 2005 when Florida State University lured away David Larbalestier, director of the Applied Superconductivity Center. Larbalestier, who generated $15 million in research grants in the previous five years, took with him 30 staff members.

"This is another university that never used to be successful in hiring from us," Wiley said.