The University should investigate its salary-setting practices to correct existing inequities in faculty salaries, University President Joab Thomas told the University Faculty Senate at its meeting yesterday.

Thomas spoke to faculty senators about a report prepared by the University's Office of Planning and Analysis. The report, released last week, shows that male faculty at University Park make on the average 48 percent more than female faculty.

The report also showed that minority faculty members at the University made about 2.3 percent more than non-minority members, and that faculty members at University Park earned about 47 percent more than faculty at Commonwealth campuses.

The report, based on figures compiled between 1983 and 1989, charted salary differences between men and women, minorities and non-minorities, University Park and Commonwealth campus faculty, and among faculty of different colleges.

The differences were divided into two categories: explained and unexplained, said Robert Keiper, the chairman of the subcommittee on faculty salaries.

For the most part, "explained" differences in salaries are determined by faculty members' rank -- whether professor, associate professor or assistant professor -- and by department (engineering and business faculty make more than liberal arts faculty), Keiper said.

Market forces also explain some salary differences, Thomas said. Thomas said the University must compete with business for some professors, thereby driving up their salaries.

University officials could not account for the "unexplained" differences, which comprise 2.2 percent of the gender gap in faculty salaries at University Park and 20.7 percent of the gap between University Park and Commonwealth campus faculty salaries. The unexplained differences between minority and non-minority salaries was not calculated.

Thomas said the University needs to investigate the unexplained differences.

"I think we need to study diligently those criteria and qualities other than market forces that are used in our reward system to ensure that our values remain appropriate for the University," Thomas said.

Leonard Berkowitz, assistant professor of philosophy at York campus, said the reasons for the salary disparities did not justify them.

He said he attributes the disparity between University Park faculty salaries and Commonwealth campus faculty salaries to the differing rewards for various jobs.

Berkowitz said that the Unviversity tends to reward those faculty members involved in research more than those involved in teaching.

He added that the University needs to investigate the causes of the salary differences.

The report shows that professors in the colleges of Business and Engineering receive higher salaries than professors in the colleges of Liberal Arts and Arts and Architecture.

"Why should we be paying business or engineering faculty more than other faculty members?" Berkowitz said. "That is the question the University needs to address."

Berkowitz added that the University needs to determine why women are paid less.

"Is it because they are not being promoted at the same level and are somehow being discriminated against, or is it because more women are new to the University or are entering the University with less credentials?" he asked.

In other business the senate voted to allow students to "late-add" courses if the student's adviser and the course's instructor approve in writing.

The signature of the dean of a college, the director of the Division of Undergraduate Studies or the executive officer of the Commonwealth campus is no longer required.

Robert Heinsohn, a professor of mechanical engineering, said he believed the new rule might allow students to abuse their privileges. Because the new rule specifies no cut-off date, Heinsohn said, students can wait until late in the semester to add an "A-easy" course to save a low grade point average.