The percentage of faculty and staff of color has increased in the past decade at Iowa State, which has the most diverse workforce of any of the state's three public universities.
That's according to statistics the regent institutions annually submit to the state Board of Regents showing how many workers in specific job categories are women and how many are racial or ethnic minorities. At its meeting last week, the board accepted without comments the diversity report and the annual human resources report, which includes detailed information about salary and benefits at the universities.
Ten years ago, minorities accounted for 19 percent of Iowa State's 1,606 faculty members -- including tenured, tenure-track and nontenured positions. Of the 1,857 faculty members as of Oct. 31, 2017, 25 percent were minorities. Minority faculty rates this fall were 22 percent at the University of Iowa and 15 percent at the University of Northern Iowa.
Iowa State was the only regent university, based on fall 2016 numbers included in the report, to have a higher percentage of minority tenured and tenure-track faculty than its peer group -- 10 other land-grant institutions the Board of Regents uses for comparison.
Nineteen percent of Iowa State's 2,778 professional and scientific staff were minority this fall, up from 11 percent in 2007. This fall, 9 percent of P&S staff at Iowa and 10 percent at UNI were minority.
Among all 6,846 employees, 17 percent of Iowa State's workforce this fall was minority, compared to 13 percent at Iowa and 11 percent at UNI. In 2007, 11 percent of all ISU workers were minorities, with 9 percent at UNI and 8 percent at Iowa.
During the same time frame, Iowa State's proportion of female faculty rose from 35 percent to 40 percent. Iowa's overall faculty was 41 percent female this fall, while UNI's was 48 percent.
Salaries still trail peers
The new data regents received Feb. 22 also showed Iowa State faculty salaries still lag behind those of peer institutions and are among the lowest of the high-level research universities in the prestigious Association of American Universities.
Among the 11 peer universities, Iowa State's estimated average 2017-18 faculty salary of $106,700 -- an average across all ranks – was next to last. Among AAU universities, Iowa State ranked 55th out of 62. How faculty salaries stack up against peer schools is a long-standing concern.
As of June 30, 2017, the average salary for Iowa State's P&S staff was $63,434, compared to $68,101 at UNI and $70,688 at Iowa. Among merit staff, the average salary was $43,117 at Iowa State, $42,035 at Iowa and $46,539 at UNI. The report didn't compare staff salaries to any out-of-state institutions.
Iowa State employees
|
Primary occupational activity |
Total workers |
% minority |
% female |
|||
|
|
2017 |
2007 |
2017 |
2007 |
2017 |
2007 |
|
Executive/administrative/managerial |
467 |
346 |
10.7% |
9.0% |
44.8% |
35.8% |
|
Tenured and tenure-track faculty |
1,257 |
1,195 |
28.1% |
20.4% |
32.9% |
29.2% |
|
Nontenure-track faculty |
600 |
411 |
17.2% |
13.6% |
56.8% |
51.6% |
|
Professional and scientific staff |
2,778 |
2,014 |
19.4% |
10.8% |
51.1% |
47.3% |
|
Secretarial and clerical staff |
790 |
1,085 |
5.6% |
3.3% |
86.6% |
90.9% |
|
Technical and paraprofessional staff |
131 |
163 |
5.3% |
3.1% |
74.0% |
59.5% |
|
Skilled crafts staff |
259 |
282 |
3.1% |
1.4% |
3.5% |
4.3% |
|
Service and maintenance staff |
564 |
563 |
11.2% |
7.8% |
47.5% |
52.9% |
|
All workers |
6,846 |
6,059 |
17.1% |
10.5% |
50.3% |
50.0% |
Note: 2007 numbers are as of Sept. 30; 2017 numbers are as of Oct. 31
Source: 2018 annual diversity report, state Board of Regents
