Mississippi Valley State University has lost faculty for different reasons in recent years, but pay continues to be a top motivation, a university spokeswoman said.
Out of 161 people who were faculty members in the fall of 2002, 47 - or 29 percent - did not return for the fall of 2003, according to a study by the College Board. That percentage is the highest among the state's universities.
Renell Franklin, MVSU's director of public relations, said the school seeks faculty with high credentials, so naturally other schools will covet them as well.
Those standards will remain high, because "we're going to continue to recruit the best and the brightest," she said.
The university's president, Dr. Lester C. Newman, has done a good job of recruiting people, but the bottom line will be the package that a school can offer, she said.
Faculty members also have other motives for leaving, such as a desire to be closer to their families, Franklin said.
Some of these educators have long commutes from places such as Nashville, Tenn., and New Orleans, and so opportunities to shorten those trips are attractive, she said.
Others might have chosen to leave education altogether.
Franklin said she didn't know of any department that had been hit especially hard by the departures.
