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Faculty salary survey

The American Mathematical Society does an admirable job of collecting data on the profession. However, the usefulness of data is greatly diminished when the time elapsed between collection and reporting is large.

As I write, the latest available Faculty Salary Report is for the 2019–2020 academic year. Three more collection cycles have taken place, for academic years 2020–2021, 2021–2022, and 2022–2023. The data in the latest available report is from before the pandemic and before rampant inflation. Many of our institutions are facing significant financial pressures. Timely data is needed now more than in a long time.

This is a relatively recent issue; for decades, the salary report for academic year n dash n+1 was published in these Notices in the spring, summer, or fall of year n+1. Only in recent years has the timeliness of the report deteriorated. This seems to be discourteous of the time invested by department or university staff to collect and submit the data each fall.

Perhaps faculty salaries are no longer a priority for the Society. Not so for many of its members.

C. Bryan Dawson, Union University

Response from AMS and the Joint (AMS-ASA-MAA-SIAM) Data Committee

The AMS appreciates and understands your concern with the lack of published reports. We have indeed fallen behind and apologize for this delay. We know the community relies on this data, and we assure you that publishing these reports remains a priority for the AMS. During the pandemic the AMS experienced substantial disruption of its normal operations; a number of personnel changes in survey staffing over the last two years have added to this strain. While we very much appreciate the time that many have contributed in filling out surveys, an unprecedented drop in survey response rates has compounded the problem of data analysis.

We are taking actions to address these issues. We have temporarily paused data collection to allow AMS staff and the Joint (AMS-ASA-MAA-SIAM) Data Committee to resolve this backlog and examine other important issues related to the Annual Survey. We are reviewing each of the surveys and identifying ways to increase response rates and streamline data collection, report creation, and data dissemination. We are committed to not only sharing updated data but improving the Annual Survey, so that it meets the needs of the mathematical sciences community.