An Associate at Harvard is a different title (really Assistant)Reader comment on: Peter Beinart's CUNY Pay Submitted by gerry (United States), Oct 21, 2012 11:00 The comparison between Harvard and CUNY pay scales is very misleading. As an example, a tenured associate professor at CUNY in the humanities may make in the high 70K range. Someone of much lower rank at Harvard, i.e. a first year assistant professor without tenure or a history of research publications can make in the high 80K range, while someone of the equivalent junior rank at CUNY is likely to make in the mid 60K range. Your mistake was in misunderstanding the terminology, and so choosing one of the very few places (perhaps the only one) where comparing like terms does not work. In general, Associate means tenured so that after 6-7 years if one is has made a sufficient contribution to the field, etc., one is promoted to associate and usually simulateously, granted tenure. Harvard likes to have its own special bureaucratic language. At Harvard, one is called associate professor when one gets a second 3-year contract, meaning while one is still not tenured. Then, with tenure, one is called Professor. In other words the equivalency your present (between Beinart and a Harvard "Associate Professor") is a false one. For the same rank, a Harvard junior faculty member is making between $20,000 more than one at CUNY. It does not matter that she is called associate at Harvard, she is the equivalent of an assistant professor at CUNY: worked less than seven years, and untenured. (This will look ridiculous to those in the business, hence perhaps the tone of the commenters, all of whom know that equivalent-ranked Harvard faculty make a lot more than CUNY professors, once you correct for idiosyncratic terminology.) Note: Comments are moderated by the editor and are subject to editing. Submit a comment on this article Other reader comments on this item
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