Designed to keep quality faculty and attract new teachers to NIU, five professorships garnered by NIU’s College of Business this semester will supplement the salaries of accountancy and marketing faculty, said Richard Brown, College of Business dean.

Awarded for the College of Business’ “excellent reputation in graduates,” the professorships are monetary contributions given to individual instructors by five business firms “for salary supplementation or individual expenses,” Brown said.

The accountancy firms of Ernst & Whinney, Arthur Andersen and Peat, Marwick & Main each awarded a professorship. Household International and UARCO, a sales and marketing firm, also granted professorships.

Each professorship ranges from $15,000 to $20,000, he said. A professorship “brings key salaries to the level (paid) at national competitive institutions. We (NIU) couldn’t attract people without financial assistance,” he said.

Brown said NIU’s College of Business compares itself to a group of 22 accredited public schools in the Midwest, including the University of Iowa and Marquette University, in setting faculty salaries. “These are the schools we go head-to-head with for new faculty,” he said.

Salaries are set by matching offers faculty receive from other schools and comparing those figures with the market, or average, salary for instructors with a similar record.

“We (the College of Business) look at figures and offers and make adjustments,” he said.

NIU accountancy faculty also received salary increases totaling $20,000 this semester through a joint effort of the office of NIU Provost Kendall Baker and the College of Business.

Brown said NIU offers competitive salaries for new doctorate faculty in business, but “after they have spent three or four years here, we don’t pay competitive salaries.”

“Everyone could go get an offer,” he said. Brown said he tries to keep the most productive faculty from soliciting offers from other schools.

“Once you get faculty looking for offers, they will leave,” he said.

“I don’t want key people to go. I’ve got to go with people who are the most productive in key programs.”

John Smith, accountancy department chairman, said the professorships are a “good idea” and will allow NIU to supplement the state faculty salaries while building partnerships with companies in the business field.