The purpose of the Instructional Faculty Survey was to assist elected faculty representatives on the Faculty Advisory Council and University Senate, as well as the UO administration, in their efforts to improve faculty salaries. To this end, a representative sample of instructional faculty was randomly selected and interviewed by telephone, with over-sampling of minority faculty and faculty from small departments.

The survey results show that while most faculty are satisfied with their jobs at the University of Oregon, they strongly support various principles and criteria for increasing compensation and distributing raises. Two criteria, however, emerged as the most important mechanisms for improving salaries: "across-the-board cost-of-living raises that are linked to Oregon's actual cost-of-living increases" and "merit increases based on faculty excellence in performing their duties." However, support for these two criteria varies substantially by college, academic rank, tenure status, and between women and men. Thus, not matter how raises are implemented, everyone is unlikely to be fully satisfied.