Faculty Response Rates to a Request for Information for a Study of Salary

Abstract

A study of faculty was conducted at a state university to investigate response rates to a request for information relevant to faculty salaries. Faculty members were asked to sign an authorization form to release information from their personnel file and to submit a current resume that included professional activities. Only 25.5% of all 707 full-time faculty members agreed to release information from their personnel files, 14% refused, and 60.5% did not respond to two separate requests sent through a campus mail system. A higher refusal rate and lower consent rate was found among non-tenured instructors with fewer years of service who were not eligible to teach graduate courses. Faculty members who belonged to the organization which sponsored the salary study had a higher consent rate.