Boston University’s Charles River Campus welcomed 53 new professors to its faculty for the 2012–13 academic year.
“Every year BU hires new faculty,” said BU spokesman Colin Riley. “They look at the freshman class and see what sections need more faculty. New hires are consistent with the goal of increasing faculty as part of the strategic plan.”
In BU’s Strategic Plan, the first of 10 commitments the university made to improve itself over the next decade pertain to hiring new faculty.
“As a great, 21st-century research university, we are committed to the highest standards of teaching, research, scholarship and professional accomplishment — a level of excellence which must be reflected in our faculty,” according to the plan completed in 2007.
The Charles River Campus hired 53 full-time professors this year compared to only 46 new faculty the previous academic year, said Julie Sandell, associate provost for faculty affairs at BU.
“The University’s Strategic Plan calls for adding well over 100 new faculty positions over 10 years (starting in 2007), so we are on track,” she said in an email interview.
While 38 of the 53 new professors were hired to replace faculty members who retired or resigned, 15 were hired into new positions, which increases the size of the faculty, Sandell said.
During the 2011–12 academic year, Boston University had 2,032 full-time faculty members, according to the 2012 Faculty Salary Survey by The Chronicle of Higher Education.
While the additional positions cost the university more money, Sandell said it will “make us a better institution with a broader base of scholarship and teaching.”
Sandell said the exact costs of paying the new faculty are not available.
The average salary for full professors at BU for 2011–12 was $151,700, according to the survey.
The average salary for associate professors was $105,000, while the average salary for assistant professors was $87,800. According to The Chronicle, these numbers are all “far above the median” of the 1,251 “doctoral institutions in the survey.”
Most of the new faculty are hired as assistant professors, but work their way up to become associate professors and then full professors. Though some faculty are hired at the associate or full professor level if they are “extraordinary,” Sandell said.
Having additional faculty does not reduce the work for the faculty who are already on campus, she said.
“More faculty allows us to reduce the student-faculty ratio and develop new programs,” she said.
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