UPDATED: Thursday, Nov. 8 at 12:38 p.m.

The issue of pay inequality, known to women across the world for decades, has been discussed extensively in the United States.

Now that conversation has come to the forefront of Syracuse University’s campus discourse, as woman professors of different disciplines and different colleges have come forward to rightfully push the university to correct pay disparities across campus and across disciplines.

Last year, dozens of women faculty members took a full-page ad out in The Daily Orange, urging action.

The ad didn’t go unnoticed. At the first University Senate meeting of this academic year, several women senators stood up to read parts of a prepared statement that said pay disparities were still apparent at SU.

Margaret Thompson, a history professor in the Maxwell School of Citizenship and Public Affairs, has been leading the charge to address pay issues, along with several other women faculty. She said the disparity between how colleges dispersed funding, to address the pay gap, was due to a lack of organization.

“There is absolutely no oversight over this process,” Thompson said. “If the administration actually cared about this process, we would see the administration implementing a proper oversight process.”

Thompson said people in Maxwell who were concerned about the funding distribution were told to talk to the school’s dean, David Van Slyke.

Vice Chancellor for Academic Affairs and Provost Michele Wheatley, earlier this year, told the Senate that the pay gap at SU was eliminated. The university invested $1.8 million to make salary adjustments for more than 200 women faculty, Wheatley added.

Wheatley, in a transcription of her speech to the Senate, provided to The D.O., said: “The Associate Provost for Faculty Affairs was actively involved in this process and approved final salaries. There were facts and circumstances taken into consideration for each salary adjustment.”

The statement did not specifically address concerns raised by Thompson and other faculty members. SU’s administration shouldn’t turn a blind eye to this issue.

A university that espouses the belief of equality, tolerance, progressive values and giving opportunities for all should care about how they are dispersing funds that are meant to correct institutionalized inequality.

Ryan Golden is a policy studies and religion dual major. His column appears biweekly. He can be reached at rjgolden@syr.edu and on Twitter @RyanJGolden.

This post has been updated with appropriate style.

Published on November 7, 2018 at 7:08 pm