Update: We have raised the $5,000 needed for the external audit. It only took us eight days. I think that tells us how strongly our community feels about this issue.
We thank everyone for their contributions. We cannot thank you enough. We will make sure that all anonymous contributions remain anonymous.
Once Dr. Bunsis has completed the audit, we will post the full audit results to the Gallaudet AAUP website.
The Gallaudet AAUP, through independent analysis of publicly available data, has shown that Gallaudet faculty are paid 20% less than faculty in the Washington DC area, even though staff and administrators are respectively paid average and slightly-above average salaries when compared to the same institutions. Gallaudet’s salary gap worsens with seniority: our full professors earn 40% less than the median for Washington, DC area institutions. Gallaudet spends proportionately less on faculty and more on staff and administrators than comparable universities. We’ve also argued that because Ernst & Young’s salary analysis for Gallaudet used a hand-selected sample of comparator institutions, they may have been biased toward obtaining low figures.
Gallaudet has consistently claimed to be in a financial emergency since 2009 as a way to justify not awarding merit increases or regular cost-of-living increases. Though there have been some general pay increases in recent years, these increases have also benefited staff and administrators whose salaries are already on par.
For a comprehensive picture of the faculty pay situation, visit our Salary Dashboard.
Other universities have used fake “austerity” arguments to freeze pay. Notably, Johns Hopkins froze contributions to faculty retirement funds during the COVID pandemic, which was effectively a 10% pay cut. A faculty-hired expert, Professor Howard Bunsis, audited Johns Hopkins’ balance sheet and identified nearly $2 billion in cash reserves. After the audit results were made public, Hopkins restored its contributions to faculty retirement funds.
We have cursorily reviewed Gallaudet’s balance sheet and see no evidence of a sustained financial emergency. Gallaudet has a large budget consisting of tuition as well as a federal appropriation of $140 million, which comparable universities do not receive. Gallaudet has several times more personnel than comparable universities and frequently hires expensive consultants for tasks that could be done in-house.
The Gallaudet AAUP aims to raise $5,000 to hire Professor Howard Bunsis, who has agreed to perform a forensic audit of Gallaudet’s finances for this minimal fee. An expert in university finances, Professor Bunsis has audited other universities, including Johns Hopkins and the University of Maryland College Park.
Help fund this audit by donating (donations can be anonymous). Any significant leftover funds will be used to establish a fund to defray the costs of AAUP membership for our BIPOC faculty.
Please also forward this web page to your friends and colleagues, using the share links below. When this campaign is fully funded and Professor Bunsis has completed his audit, the Gallaudet AAUP will make all results public on our website and through emails to faculty, staff, and administrators.
Gallaudet AAUP 