Penn State salaries are on the rise for professors, and administrators' pay may be following suit, according to some members of the Faculty Senate.

In a study by the Association of American Universities Data Ex-change (AAUDE), Penn State professors received the second highest average salary ranking out of 22 public institutions for the 2005-06 year.

The information was discussed at Tuesday's Faculty Senate meeting, which revealed that University Park salaries have increased from between 30 to 79 percent from the 1995-96 year, compared with the 36 to 74 percent increase for other AAUDE institutions, according to the report.

The median salary in the fall of 2006 for full-time standing appointment professors at the University Park campus was $108,504. That was an increase of $3,384 from the previous year. Associate professors made on average of $77,472 this year,

which was also a $3,384 increase, and assistant professors made around $65,304 last year, which was a $1,296 increase from the previous year.

Donald Rung, Faculty Senate Committee member on faculty benefits, said the salary numbers released were not a surprise.

"I think there are ups and downs and in general, Penn State's increases have been reasonable over the last several years, Rung said.

Senate Committee on faculty benefits chairwoman Cara-Lynne Schengrund agreed.

"Not if you look back historically, I don't think that it was that much of a surprise based on where we have been for the last couple of years," Schengrund said. "Penn State has been working in keeping us relatively well-placed with other institutions, so I don't think it was a surprise."

The salaries of professors are not the only salaries increasing.

The College and University Professional Association for Human Resources recently released its 2006-07 Administrative Compensation Survey that showed senior-level administrators in colleges and universities around the nation received a 4 percent increase for the 2006-07 fiscal year. The increase was the largest salary gain in five years and outpaced inflation for the 10th consecutive year.

Rung said Penn State's professor salary has increased at a constant rate throughout the years and doesn't appear to follow this dramatic increase.

"I'd say [Penn State has had] a steady but not unreasonable increase," he said.

Penn State has remained quiet about the senior-level administration salary increases, however.

Daniel Sieminski, assistant vice president of finance and business, wrote in an e-mail message that the salaries for the administration are not available. He added that the university does not track salary increases related to specific job categories or provide salary increase information for specific individuals or positions.

"With that said, salary increases university-wide have been in the 3 to 4 percent range over the past three years," he said.

Senate Committee on faculty benefits member Michael Dooris said the increase of professor's pay correlates to an increase in the administration pay, although specific numbers have not been released.

Spanier did release his salary, $545,016, this past year to the Chronicle of Higher Education. He received an increase of $28,416 from the previous year.

The exact salary and definite increase of the administration staffers' salaries have not been released, and Rung said he felt the university should release this information to the public.

"I wish the president would release the salary increases for his senior staff," Rung said.

Dooris said it doesn't matter if those receiving increases are faculty or staff members. The same percentage of increase is allocated to all members.

"So for this year, it looks like we will get a 2-percent increase. But whatever it is, that same percent is made available for faculty, staff and administration," Dooris said. "How it gets divvied up among individual people varies a lot, but on average, it wouldn't be right to say we are putting more money into faculty, executives or clerical staff."