Editor’s note: This is part of a series of seven articles examining faculty and staff salaries at Eastern.

Every academic department at Eastern is unique; the faculty teaches different things, gives different seminars and does different things outside of the classroom.

All these factors contribute into what each department gets paid per year on average. Of the 32 departments at Eastern, it might not be a secret that the School of Business gets paid the most out of every department on campus, for both professor and instructor level.

The difference between a professor and an instructor is that an instructor is usually at the university to just teach, whereas faculty must do service to the department, profession and university, and should also do research, developing creative projects and research articles.

The professors in the School of Business get paid about $104,613 a year on average, which is $25,793 more than the second highest paid faculty, the political science department.

To put that in perspective, even instructors who teach in the School of Business only get paid $2,277 less than the actual professors who teach in the education department, which gets paid an average of $57,666.

Political science chairman Jeffrey Ashley said he was surprised his department was ranked so high for salaries.

“I think, in our case, it is most likely that we have more senior faculty and fewer junior faculty,” he said.

The political science professors get paid an average of $78,819 a year.

“We have 11 full-time (professors) and seven are full professors (with two near the very end of their career) and only one will be an assistant after this year,” he said. “Compare this to a department made up of mostly assistant or associate professors and we will certainly be higher.”

So why do departments get paid like they do? President William Perry said it is a market economy.

“They could go work in the private sector and make much more money,” he said. “They have options. What we want to do is bring in the best educators for our students.”

Perry said business students usually have an idea of what they want to do in life.

“I would hope that most students decide to go into a profession for the right reason,” Perry said. “If you are going into a business for money, you’re not going to be satisfied.”

Experience and credentials also affect faculty salaries.

For example, coaches at Eastern do more than coach a sport every season. They recruit, go on the road and work all year long with pre- and post-seasons.

The same goes for professors and instructors, who usually serve on several committees, work on research in their fields, and frequently advise students academically.

Eastern’s faculty publishes books, chair state and national organizations, and also do some recruiting at job fairs and conferences. Some professors also teach summer school, serve in administrative positions, run the writing center or a science lab, or run a direct student media.

Debbie Cunningham, a sociology instructor, does a lot more than go to her classes and office hours.

“I volunteer on the Soup Stop Board, HOPE Children’s Advisery Committeeand (I’m) on the U of I School of Social Work alumni board,” she said.

Sociology professors make an average of $61,946, while instructors make $35,369, which is almost less than half, and the seventh lowest-paid department on campus.

Although the salary does not reflect it, sociology professors and instructors do a lot for the community they live in and host a lot of extra clubs and activities for students to take advantage of.

They have the sociology club, the criminal justice club and more. All of these groups and clubs need advisers, which come from employees of the department.

The lowest-paid department on campus is the education department, which includes early childhood education, elementary education and middle level education.

The average professor gets paid about $57,666. Education is also the largest department with the highest student enrollment on campus.

The departments that fall in the middle of the salary list are ones that get paid about $66,000 to $70,000 a year. This includes, but is not limited to, theatre arts, counseling and philosophy.

Josh Farmer, a senior music major with teacher certification, said he thought the highest-paid department would be chemistry.

“I thought that would be the area where most professors would have a higher-level degree, like doctoral status or higher,” he said.

Professors in all departments typically have advanced degrees, earning both doctorates and masters in fine arts, the terminal degree for the arts.

Most of the tenure-track faculty in English, math and psychology, for example, have earned doctorates while faculty in theater and art have a mix of MFAs and doctorate degrees.

Professors get paid approximately 42 percent more than instructors. These salaries are a small percentage of the $93 million the university dishes out annually for maintenance, transportation, utilities and salaries.

Although some departments may get paid significantly more than others, all departments atEastern strive to educate students and create a diverse learning environment.

DEPARTMENT AVERAGE

#1 School of Business $104,612.62

#2 Political Science $78,819.43

#3 Math and Computer Science $76,891.65

#4 Economics $76,707.00

#5 Psychology $76,505.29

#6 Biology $75,585.00

#7 Educational Leadership $74,376.00

#8 Physics $73,003.00

#9 Student Teaching $72,729.00

#10 Art $71,474.36

#11 History $71,209.45

#12 Journalism $71,100.80

#13 School of Technology $70,295.76

#14 English $69,257.99

#15 Theatre Arts $68,829.00

#16 Counseling & Development $68,068.50

#17 Philosophy $67,467.00

#18 Chemistry $66,341.00

#19 Kinesiology & Sport Studies $65,272.18

#20 Family and Consumer Science $65,178.13

#21 Special Education $65,020.50

#22 Communication Studies $63,958.00

#23 Geology/Geography $62,554.95

#24 Sociology/Anthropology $61,946.00

#25 Health Studies $60,862.00

#26 EIU Nursing Program $60,003.00

#27 Music $59,375.90

#28 Foreign Languages $58,532.00

#29 Secondary Ed. & Foundations $57,751.20

#30 EL/ELE/MLE $57,665.69

Cyndi Francois can ve reached at 581-2812 or clfrancois@eiu.edu