Several interesting aspects to this post: (1) there was a major across-the-board increase in the salary scale at Columbia University in 1928; (2) the salary scale was not differentiated according to faculties or departments; (3) E.R.A. Seligman’s salary was at the top of the full professor scale.
Pro-tip: Clicking on the “salaries” keyword at the bottom of this post will take you to other artifacts with salary information.
__________________
Columbia University
in the City of New York
President’s Room
April 5, 1928
My dear Professor Seligman
It is with great pleasure and profound satisfactions that I advise you of action taken by the Trustees at their meeting on April 2, 1928, greatly to improve the scale of compensation paid to full-time teachers and administrative officers who are appointed directly by the Trustees of Columbia University. This action, effective from July 1, 1928, affects every member of the teaching and administrative staff on full-time service, 450 in number, with two exceptions,–first, those who have heretofore, and as exceptional cases, been advanced in the manner now made general for their group; and, second, those who, by the provisions of the Budget for 1928-29 as just adopted, have been just now, through promotion or advancement in salary, brought up to the present minimum level of the group to which they belong. The salaries of this latter class, 32 in number, will naturally be increased to the new minimum scale in the next or following years, as may be found practicable.
By the terms of the new salary scale, the full Professor will receive a normal minimum salary of $7,500 instead of $6,000 as heretofore, and there will be groups at $9,000, at $10,000, and at $12,000, to which, for special reasons or under exceptional circumstances, individuals may be from time to time advanced or appointed.
The Associate Professor will receive a normal minimum salary of $5,000, instead of $4,500 as heretofore, and there will be a group at $6,000, to which, for special reasons or under exceptional circumstances, individuals may be from time to time advanced or appointed.
The Assistant Professor will receive a normal minimum salary of $3,600, instead of $3,000 as heretofore, and there will be groups at $4,000, at $4,500, and at $5,000, to which, for special reasons or under exceptional circumstances, individuals may be from time to time advanced or appointed.
The Instructor will receive a normal minimum salary of $2,400, instead of $2,000 as heretofore, with advancement in subsequent years, if reappointed, to $2,700 and $3,000.
Fourteen officers of administration will receive additional compensations amounting in all to $9,500 annually; and seventeen members of the Library Staff will receive additional compensations amounting in all to $5,300 annually.
The compensation paid for service in the Summer Session or in University Extension is not to be increased because of the changes now made in the general salary schedule. Officers who accept Summer Session or University Extension service do so voluntarily, and the present stipends are as large as the resources of the University will permit.
I congratulate the entire University staff upon this most important action by the Trustees, which will do so much to make more comfortable and more satisfying the conditions of academic life and service at Columbia.
I have particular pleasure in advising you that your salary from July 1, 1928 has been fixed in the Budget as amended at $12,000.
With cordial regards,
I am,
Faithfully yours,
[signed] Nicholas Murray Butler
President
Professor E. R. A. Seligman
__________________
Response by E.R.A. Seligman
Carbon copy
April 11, 1928
President Nicholas Murray Butler,
Columbia University.
My dear Mr. President:
I beg to acknowledge receipt of your letter of April 5th. I need not say with what appreciation the news has been received among all my colleagues and I want to thank you very warmly also on my own behalf for what constitutes a notable step forward in the history of higher education.
When this is coupled with what you told me the other day, it will certainly be a landmark in university history.
What we must now try to do is to insist upon the highest possible standard in the quality of the scholars connected with Columbia.
Respectfully yours,
[unsigned copy: E.R.A. Seligman]
Source: Columbia University Libraries, Manuscript Collections. Edwin Robert Anderson Seligman Collection, Box 37, containing “Box 100: Columbia 1924-30”.
Image Source: Art and Picture Collection, The New York Public Library. (1913). Library Columbia University, New York City. Retrieved from http://digitalcollections.nypl.org/items/510d47e2-8bad-a3d9-e040-e00a18064a99