Professor salary increases outpaced inflation for the first time in five years, though overall spending continues to disproportionately favor administration and athletics, according to a report published today by the American Association of University Professors (AAUP).

That professor salaries experienced a small net gain for the first time in years represents the "continuation of the long period of stagnation in average full-time faculty salaries" and not necessarily a cause for optimism, the report argued. Inside Higher Ed also pointed out that the AAUP's research left out part-time professors, who face tougher wage restrictions and would have made the report's argument even more convincing.

By the numbers, professors make a pretty good living for themselves. Full-time public professors earn an average of $112,987 while full-time private professors make $144,770. Yet, many members of the profession have spent as much time in school as doctors and lawyers. Many are also publishing reports in famous journals or conducting important research. They are among a college's most important assets.

You could argue that those pledging a life to academia shouldn't command huge salaries; the report would argue back that since colleges are spending exorbitant sums of money anyway, they'd be better off maintaining the quality of professors than feeding other sectors. From 1976 to 2011, non-professional positions at schools increased by 369 percent, according to the report. During the same time, the field of tenured professors grew by 23 percent.

"Increasingly, institutions of higher education have lost their focus on the academic activities at the core of their mission," the report said. "Spending on administrative overhead continues to draw funding away from academic programs, and the proliferation of new administrative and support positions has continued unabated in the two decades since 'administrative bloat' was brought into the higher education lexicon."

The report also presented evidence against the assertion that athletic funding is a self-sustaining entity that doesn't take from a school's academic budget.

"It has been argued that athletic spending doesn't take funding away from academics because 'revenue-generating' sports such as football and men's basketball bring in sufficient funds to finance themselves along with other sports teams," the report said. "The evidence, however, shows this assertion to be untrue."