Harris Plea Would Hike Professors' Salaries 50%

Seymour Harris '20, Chairman of the Department of Economics, re-echoed his plea for increased salaries for professors yesterday. He called for an increase of 50 per cent within three years and an additional 30 per cent hike within ten years.

Writing in the Bulletin of the Association of University Professors, Harris cited an 80 per cent rise in workers' wages coupled with inflation as causes showing the need for higher pay. Since 1930, he tabulated, every professor has lost the equivalent of $42,000, for a national total approaching $6 billion.

An increase in salary would help maintain high standards, Harris noted, and would attract more men into teaching. Within the next 15 years, he said, institutions of higher learning should double the size of their faculties due to increased enrolments.

To finance the proposed $2.5 billion pay hike, Harris suggested raising tuition, and adding government grants and private gifts. However, even these sources would cover only $1 billion of the cost, Harris said.