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[almostfinished]

Hi all,

First I've read previous discussion threads on the subject of negotiating an offer but most seemed to be geared toward tenure track positions.

I have recently been offerred a one year VAP in a humanities field. I was excited since I had given up on this season's job market. I will earn my PhD in a few weeks.

I was disappointed to hear that they wanted to hire me at 45 thousand per year salary with medical benefits. But I would not describe the benefits package as spectacular.

This position is at a private university in a very expensive city. I believe the C.O.L. is 70 to 80 percent above the national cost of living.

According to the salary calculator on the CHE website, the AAUP's estimation of the average starting salary for assistant professors at this university is above 60,000. I'm sure that it is lower for humanities VAP's, but 45 thousand is a huge drop it seems.

As a VAP, am I in a position to negotiate salary and other things, like moving expenses?

Is this the "going rate" for new PhD hires? Does the title Visiting make a difference? Does anyone know what other new hires in history, American Studies, English, and other humanities fields started out in salary this year or will start out in the fall?

Should I point out that this starting salary is below the average as reported by CUPA-HR?

http://insidehighered.com/news/2007/03/12/cupa


Thanks in advance!

[sagit]

I really doubt you could negotiate.  A 1-year VAP is not the same as someone starting on a tenure-track line.  I would expect a salary at the level of an Instructor or a Post-Doc, not an Assistant Professor.

But on the positive side, this is very good news because you'll have finished your PhD and have a job while you're on the market for a tenure track position.  This should be good experience for your C.V. if you keep up your publication schedule.

[sinopian_diogenes]

Congratulations on the new position!

I've been in your position a couple of times.  Short answer: you can negotiate anything, and will get nothing if you don't ask; but don't get your hopes up.

I've had success negotiating $1,500 extra for moving costs once; another time I was able to negotiate for which courses I would be teaching (a slightly different AOC than that which the job advertised, but which better fit the research I wanted to do).  You might also be able to negotiate for travel money to conferences at which you're presenting a paper ($1,000 is a standard amount in my humanities discipline), although I've had mixed success with that (some schools include a research allotment as part of the contract for VAP, but those that don't have usually been unwilling to give it).

As others will be quick to point out, the AAUP et al. numbers are meaningless for your situation and are misleading even for new assistant professors on the TT.  To begin with, they aggregate both new hires and people who have had numerous raises over the years; they also aggregate across disciplines with very different starting salaries (e.g., asst. prof. in finance at Harvard Business school will probably command twice as much as a starting asst. prof. in classics).  I certainly wouldn't use any of that data in your negotiations (e.g., "you folks should give me $47.5K since the AAUP reports....").  Incidentally, even if you could negotiate, I doubt you could add much more than $1,000-1,500 to your salary.

[angel]

Yes, on top of humanities salaries being considerably lower than those for other fields, the AAUP guidelines also provide the average tt salary (i.e. there is no distinction between 1st and 5th year, say.)

VAPs are often paid less than tt positions.

Moreover, many institutions pay considerably less than $45 for tt faculty in the humanities.

As others have said, there is usually very little room to negotiate salary for a VAP, as you (and the department) have so little leverage.

Congrats on the job, and for what it's worth, this is a good offer for my field (history), even in an expensive city.

[aandsdean]

We're hiring new Ph.D.-holding assistant professors in humanities fields for $42,000 in a cheap cost-of-living city.  I'd die of happiness if I had the budget to offer them $45,000.  

A friend just got a TT job in art at a Big 10 school with a starting salary of $56,000.  The AAUP figures for average assistant professor at that school show $66,000.  This would include law, business, and medicine, I presume.  

That suggests that the figure you've been offered, while maybe not great, is certainly in the ballpark.  I think it's likely that a starting assistant (TT) in the same department would be offered somewhere in the low 50s, and a 10% reduction for non-TT is certainly reasonable.

Congratulations on your position.  It may not make you rich, but it's infinitely better than unemployment and can give you a platform for a successful search next year.

[looney]

I second what everyone else said.  Ask, but do not expect to receive.  I'm posting because your experience is quite similar to my own.

I've been a VAP the last two years (starting a TT in the Fall--yippee!!).  I am also in the humanities.  I was ABD during my 1st VAP and defended the summer before beginning my second.

This past year I've been at an urban R1 (a location very an insanely high cost of living).  I have it on good authority that the starting pay in my department for new asst profs is over 60K.  I made 45K.  Good benefits, super retirement contribution from the U.  I did ask if there was room for salary negotiation (no harm in a polite inquiry), but the chair indicated he had to fight to get me the 45.  It's an sign of his kindness that he repeatedly says how they're exploiting me...funny, I don't feel exploited, but very fortunate in fact to have had the opportunity to live in a great city, make fantastic professional contacts, and be able to pay the bills (though I can't afford to live large by any means--literally, even: my apartment is teeny, but in a great location).  By the way, I was also able to snag a summer class to up my annual pay; you may inquire about that option.

Incidentally, for my VAP the prior year (rural SLAC) I also asked about increasing salary, but got a no. 

I did, however, negotiate a fairly significant increase in my TT position.  I'll be making quite a bit more in a much less expensive area.  And I'm grateful for the experience I've gained over the last two years, if terribly sick of all the moving.  I will be happy to be able to sock money away and afford to do some traveling.

[frombothsides]

As most have indicated, congratulations on the new position!  With the job markets as it is, getting full-time status is a big step towards getting a T-T position somewhere.

$45,000 for the humanities is actually on the very high end for VAP positions from personal experience (being one myself); few public institutions go above $40k, and even most private ones will balk at anything more than $42k-$44k without very good reason (heating costs in the northeast, any cost in Los Angeles) to go higher.  Unfortunately, skill sets or experience don't count for this - if they're willing to have a VAP teach the class, they aren't going to want or need to spend the big bucks for long-term experience to fill the role.

My usual rule of thumb is knock $10k off the salary tenure-track assistant professors are getting when guesstimating what an institution will pay.  This does not apply to places in unusual locales or high-price zones - but don't expect those to vary all that widely, either.  One thing to consider is that many places have separate budgeting for costs other than strict salary, and that it may be worth negotiating for those more than a salary increase - moving costs are the primary example.

From Both Sides of the Pond

[aandsdean]

[SNIP]
$45,000 for the humanities is actually on the very high end for VAP positions from personal experience (being one myself); few public institutions go above $40k, and even most private ones will balk at anything more than $42k-$44k without very good reason (heating costs in the northeast, any cost in Los Angeles) to go higher.  Unfortunately, skill sets or experience don't count for this - if they're willing to have a VAP teach the class, they aren't going to want or need to spend the big bucks for long-term experience to fill the role.
[SNIP]

The other thing to remember (which frombothsides implies) is that in some cases a university can simply put adjuncts into the courses and/or readjust the schedule to avoid hiring a VAP, and that would cost maybe $12,000-$15,000 rather than $45,000 plus benefits.  Thus, they've already made a pretty big commitment to the position by putting you in it at that salary.

This is not to say that you shouldn't hope and expect to be treated fairly.  However, the institutional perspective looks (probably) like the scenario I've laid out in the previous paragraph.  Thus they are perhaps looking at what might be considered a $30,000+benefits (factor in 25%) investment in the strength and continuity of their program, and a higher price is quite likely not to be something they're willing/able to pay. 

For a TT position, it's the institution's strong interest to try to please the incoming faculty member.  For a non-TT position, that factor is immeasurably reduced.

[sinopian_diogenes]

Don't know if this is an exception to the "both sides of the atlantic rule," but a department chair at a comprehensive Canadian University recently quoted me an salary range of about $53-57K (Canadian, although that's still about $49-53K US at the current lousy exchange rate) for a one-year VAP.  I didn't get that in writing--I accepted an offer elsewhere before their dean made a formal offer--but according to the chair, the salary for a VAP is determined by the same salary scale + steps for years of experience used for TT faculty.  In retrospect, given this thread and what I know about US universities, I can't help but wonder if that's right.  Any one know for a fact if Canadian universities pay VAP's on the same rate scale as TT faculty?

[americanist]

It might not be a Canadian thing so much as an institution-specific thing. At my last VAP position, VAPs were paid the same as starting APs, with the same benefits (including travel funds). This was an American SLAC, and the faculty had enacted this policy years earlier to make sure there was no benefit to hiring non-TT folks.

[helpful]

D Any one know for a fact if Canadian universities pay VAP's on the same rate scale as TT faculty?

Some universities don't have that category, though, so it is hard to say. At my institution, the equivalent posting (though not called VAP) pays less than tenure track.

[almostfinished]

I want to thank everyone for helping me put this situation in perspective. I can say that I am now satisfied with what I've been offered. It is actually well above what I had originally imagined I would get, before I turned to the deceptive salary calculator, which raised my expectations. 

I'm very happy about this position and its desirable location, and I feel very fortunate to have landed a job, especially since it was my first academic job interview and first 'real' year on the market. (I 'tested' the market last year as an ABD.)

[aristotelian]

Just to reiterate what has been said, my last job was a VAP in a humanistic field in the social sciences at a private college in a major metropolitan area.  I was also offered $45k, with no chance for negotiation.  So, I agree with others that this sounds like a reasonable offer.

I was given $2500 for a cross country move.  I ended up spending closer to $3k.  I asked the Dean during my first week if they would pick up the extra cost and it was not a problem.

Also, keep in mind that the $45k is probably a 9-month salary.  You could ask to teach a summer course there, or on as an adjunct somewhere in the vicinity to bump up your salary. 

[polisci_prof]

Something else to bear in mind is that, when you have been offered a VAP position, the department's investment in you is much lower than a TT hire and so, as many others have pointed out, your negotiation leverage is much lower.  When a department hires a TT faculty member, they often sincerely hope that the person they hire will stick around till tenure, get tenure, and go on to be a be a famous scholar and beloved teacher and bestow sunshine and glory upon the department and university.

When you're being hired as a VAP, on the other hand, the department wants someone to teach 3-4 classes a semester and then leave.  The department probably got lots of applicants for the 1 year position and, while it feels great to have received the offer and to know that something in your packet helped you rise above all the others, the chairperson doing the hiring probably has several other candidates that s/he knows would be just fine.

I just finished a VAP at an R1 during which I taught a 3-3 load and occupied a notch on the status ladder just below advanced graduate students (I was routinely mistaken for a new first year grad student by many other faculty).  I was less a member of the faculty than a teacher hired by the faculty to do a quick and dirty job.

But (and here's where this is relevant for you), the fact that I had a Ph.D. (as you will soon) and a job (as you will soon) and kept publishing (as you will I'm sure) helped me land a great TT job at another R1 for August.  Don't expect too much, keep your head down, and make the best of the year.  That said, of course, I'm sure many uni's treat their VAP's better than mine did, so you might be in for a pleasant surprise.

[pink_]

Almostfinished,
Congrats on the VAP offer!
Just to put things into a bit more perspective, both a good friend and I got TT jobs in the Humanities this year at SLACs, and both of us had to negotiate strenously to get 45K.  Granted, we're both going to places where the cost-of-living is much less than the location you've described, but my friend's initial offer was 44, and mine was 43.  My initial offer included a generous moving allowance.  His was 50% less.  My point here isn't to discourage you, but rather to say that the average numbers you've seen most likely include the salaries of higher paid disciplines.  Humanities salaries are always lower, and VAPs are at the low end of the low.

If you don't ask, as others have said, you won't receive.  But as a VAP, there's less incentive since your stay is temporary.  Still it will help a lot when the job market ramps back up again in the fall for you to be able to say that you have this opportunity, and it's often much easier to get faculty at your VAP insititution to speak on your behalf since there's no confllict of interest.

Good luck with everything!