The spring of 2021 saw the world begin to awaken after the 2020 lockdowns. Some businesses began to reopen, unemployment was on the decline and people started to leave their homes again. The DU administration kicked off the long journey back to normalcy by increasing undergraduate tuition by over $1,000 and giving Chancellor Jeremy Haefner a 35.9% raise.
According to publicly available 990 tax documents obtained from the university, Chancellor Haefner received a total of $743,612 in reportable and estimated compensation from DU in 2020. According to DU’s 990 filed for the following year, that number rose to $1,011,015 in 2021. For context, Chancellor Emeritus Rebecca Chopp made a total of $900,784 during her fifth and final year at DU in 2018.
DU professor Dr. Aaron Schneider said he was “surprised” when he learned how much the chancellor was making. “In a year that the faculty and staff were asked to cut pay or freeze pay because of all the constraints of COVID, it appears the chancellor took a $240,000 bonus,” he said.
Chancellor Haefner was not alone—DU’s tax documents show that other upper-level administrators also enjoyed raises between 2020 and 2021.
Provost Mary Clark received $530,112 in reportable and estimated compensation in 2021, up from $181,206 in 2020. Treasurer and Senior Vice Chancellor Leslie Brunelli received a total of $429,283 in 2020 and $465,745 in 2021; Senior Vice Chancellor Valerie Otten received $295,403 in 2020 and $433,783 in 2021; and Daniels School of Business Dean Vivek Choudhury received $486,248 in 2020 and $529,337 in 2021.
Provost Clark started working at DU a little over halfway through the 2020 pay period. Senior Vice Chancellor Otten started at DU at the end of March in 2020.
The administration instituted pay cuts for all faculty members in 2020; Schneider said they paid back the difference to most faculty at the end of the year, comparing it to an interest-free loan. Administrator raises the following year coincided with freezes in faculty salaries across departments. This meant professors were not eligible for the merit raises, which DU typically allots each year. Schneider said the administration cited the pandemic as the reason for pay cuts and freezes.
Trends in university hiring
The university has also been cutting back on hiring tenured professors while increasing the number of credit hours taught by adjunct and non-tenure-track faculty like professional, practice, and teaching faculty, said Schneider.
Most of the credit hours in University College, the Morgridge School of Education and the Graduate School of Social Work are taught by adjunct faculty, who are employed in 10-week increments. According to Schneider, adjunct faculty at the Morgridge College of Education are paid $4,360 per four-credit course; if attendance drops under 15 people, that amount decreases significantly.
DU’s 2022 Pay Across Faculty Lines Study also found that non-tenured track faculty tend to be paid less than tenured professors across departments at DU. The study found that teaching faculty make 58% of corresponding tenure-track faculty salary, while professional faculty make 81% of their tenured counterparts’ salaries.
This gap varies by school: professional faculty in Natural Sciences and Mathematics are paid 65% of what tenure-track faculty make while teaching faculty at the Daniels College of Business make just 43% of the salaries of their tenure-track counterparts.
By hiring more adjunct and non-tenured-track faculty, the university can spend less money on faculty salaries.
“The lowest paid, most vulnerable professors are making under minimum wage while the chancellor makes a million dollars,” summarized Schneider.
DU professor Dr. Kevin Lynch, who sits on the University Budget Advisory Committee (UBAC) and the faculty senate, pointed out that, as DU is a largely tuition-funded institution, faculty raises typically correspond with tuition raises. “It’s either tuition goes up and faculty and staff salaries go up, or it’s the reverse,” he said.
The university has raised tuition by $2,664 since 2020; in two of the three years since 2020, DU faculty have had their pay cut or frozen while administrator pay has continued to increase.
According to Lynch, the faculty senate has investigated discrepancies between faculty and administrator pay. Often called “administrative bloat,” Lynch described this as the notion that administrative positions and salaries are growing at a higher rate than the salaries of student-facing faculty.
“The question is, ‘has that been appropriate?’” Lynch said. “Is that taking away resources that could be better spent on faculty and staff that are more student-facing?”
Lynch also touched on perceptions that DU has “fallen behind” in faculty salaries, a concern echoed by Schneider.
Differences in adjunct pay across Colorado universities were also documented in the Pay Across Faculty Lines Study. DU rates are comparable to Metro State University but are significantly lower than CU Denver and the Colorado School of Mines.
Adjunct faculty at DU are paid a base rate of $4,232 to $5,100 per course. At Mines, base course rates range between $5,000 and $10,000 per course.
Who is calling the shots?
DU’s annual budget proposal is developed by the University Budget and Planning Office. The office sets tuition levels, decides merit raises for professors, assesses the value of university programming and implements faculty-related policy.
Provost Mary Clark, Senior Vice Chancellor Linda Kosten and Senior Vice Chancellor Leslie Brunelli are responsible for drafting a budget proposal to be presented to the Board of Trustees each year. The Board can then choose to approve the budget for the coming school year.
In 2021, DU established the University Budget Advisory Committee (UBAC), a committee composed of faculty, administrators, students and deans. The committee’s website says the committee was introduced “to better engage the community in budgetary decisions and increase transparency.” The UBAC meets monthly to discuss tuition raises, faculty salaries and other budget issues. The committee does not discuss administrative salaries, Lynch said.
“I think it’s definitely provided an opportunity to share perspectives from faculty and students,” said the law professor. He also noted that, as there is no way to track how the committee’s recommendations are incorporated in the provost’s final proposal, the committee’s real influence over the budget is unclear.
“What impact does [the committee] have?” questioned Lynch. “I can’t really say.”
Despite the establishment of the UBAC, key aspects of board budget approval and administrative salary decisions remain opaque. As professor salaries lag behind those of other universities and DU continues to raise tuition, this raises questions for many about DU’s priorities.
To Schneider, the magnitude of the gap between adjunct and non-tenured track faculty and the highest-paid administrators is the greatest cause for concern.
“I don’t know how you justify 900,000, I don’t know how you justify a bump to a million,” he said. “It’s all troubling to me.”
Chancellor Jeremy Haefner has yet to release his earnings for the 2022 calendar year.
Chancellor Jeremy Haefner, Provost Mary Clark and Dean Vivek Choudhury declined requests for interviews. As of May 1, Senior Vice Chancellor Leslie Brunelli no longer works at the university. Of the 14 UBAC members contacted, one agreed to comment for this story.
