Female professor’s publications compared with their earnings are unequal, creating a gender-based salary inequity which Biological Sciences Professor Virginia Naples presented to the Board of Trustees today.

The research presented during the board’s special meeting in Altgeld Hall, Room 315 showed the only exception in the Biological Services Department was two recently hired female assistant professors who get paid at a comparable rate.

“The performance of women’s publications are higher than their salaries,” Biological Sciences Professor Naples said.

Naples said female professors in the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences are earning $8,000 less than male professors.

Brad Hoey, director of campus communications and divisional operations, said the salary equity task force has been established with Virginia Wilcox-Gok and Kristen Myers serving as the co-chairs. Wilcox-Gok, economics professor and director of undergraduate studies, will oversee the quantitative data and Myers, director of the Center Study for Women, Gender and Sexuality, will work with the qualitative data, Hoey said.

Since its April inception, Wilcox-Gok has recruited graduate assistants to conduct research, and the task force will remain an in-house project. NIU wants to be inclusive with the research by including factors like race, salary inversion and salary compression, Hoey said.

“I don’t believe that this is an unbiased analysis of the women,” Naples said. “I have suffered very greatly from this as have all the other women in my department.”

Dean for engineering approved

Omar Ghrayeb, dean of College of Engineering and Engineering Technology, was appointed as the dean during today’s Board of Trustees special meeting at 1 p.m. in Altgeld Hall, Room 315.

Ghrayeb has his doctorate in industrial engineering from New Mexico State University and has earned more than $2 million in funding for his research, according to the special meeting agenda.