EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE MEETING
Present: Bryant,
DiMagno, Fuller, King, Logan-Peters, Miller, Sawyer, Siekman, Whitt, Wolf
Absent: Prochaska-Cue,
Scheideler, Spann
Date:
Location: 201 Canfield Administration Building
1.0 Call to
Order
Bryant called the meeting to order at
2.0 Announcements
No
announcements were made.
3.0 Chancellor
Perlman
3.1 Breakdown of Faculty Salary Increases by
Percentages
Item postponed due to lack of time.
3.2 Discussion of Recruiting Plan
Bryant reported that he was impressed with the recruiting plan presented
by the outside consultant and agreed that everyone on campus needs to be
involved, to some degree, in order for it to be successful. However, he stated that he is receiving different
messages from a variety of sources as to where he should put his efforts, and
this causes confusion for faculty. He
noted that the distance education plan for UNL has not yet been developed, yet
$12,000 grants are available for creating new distance education courses, but
money is not available to hire new faculty or to improve existing courses. He stated that a study is being conducted in
his college to quantify faculty workload.
He pointed out that recruiting is not considered a part of his workload,
and if it is not counted, why then should he or anyone else want to do it. Wolf indicated that there is confusion on
campus about what the real values are and what the cross-currents of
expectations are on campus for faculty.
Sawyer stated that he is on the task force that has been assigned to
look at professors’ workload. He noted
that there is no clear way to quantify and collect the data on a faculty
member’s work and the task force has not been given any clear direction from
the university on how this should be done.
SVCAA Edwards stated the campus is in a situation of changing course
direction. He noted that many good
things are currently happening around the campus, but that we are facing a
budget cut that is going to have impact on some of these accomplishments and
create more contradiction for faculty.
He noted that there has been pressure from both inside and outside of
the campus to create more distance education courses and this has been the driving
force behind offering the grants. He
stated that the workload study is in part due to the post tenure review
process. He stated that administrators
and faculty recently came to an understanding of what faculty assignments and
apportionment are to be, but no information has been collected regarding the
faculty apportionments. He stated these
apportionments should be based on a reasonable set of standards. He noted that colleges have been asked to
review this and to determine what would be a reasonable set of guidelines to
use to determine apportionments and how they are constituted. He noted that they do not want a system that
would not count additional work done by faculty outside of their given
assignment.
Chancellor Perlman stated that we have no choice but to invest in
recruiting students. He pointed out that
this is a revenue source for the campus, and in order for us to be successful
at it, we need to have the people and software in place that would enable us to
strategically recruit. Wolf pointed out
that another major concern is retention of students. Chancellor Perlman stated that this was a
more daunting task in that it is difficult to determine which students will
drop out of the university. He stated
that improvements in advising could help to identify those students that may be
in jeopardy. He stated that the campus
is working on integrating the financial aid system with recruiting. He noted that they are trying to gather
information on all of the financial aid that is available at the college
level. Sawyer suggested that faculty
should review midterm grades to determine if students are having
difficulty. He stated that colleges
should try to work with these students through advising. DiMagno pointed out that faculty are willing
to assist in recruiting, but that it is important (both for the University and
for the faculty member) that they participate in an effective and efficient
manner. Logan-Peters asked for
information on retention rates.
Chancellor Perlman stated that the retention of freshmen and sophomores
has increased but that students who have been here longer do not have as good a
retention rate, in part because admissions were not involved in the early
stages of their recruitment. VC Owens
stated that the statistics are similar on east campus. He pointed out that the learning communities
that have recently been established seem to be very effective.
3.3 Implementation of Budget Cut
Item postponed due to lack of time.
3.4 Annual Evaluation of Administrators
Item postponed due to lack of time.
3.5 Issues on the Horizon
Health
Care Committee
Chancellor Perlman stated that he is seeking faculty or staff that are well informed in health care coverage to
serve on the blue ribbon panel that is being created by President Smith to
review the health care program. He asked
that suggestions be submitted to him quickly.
4.0 SVCAA
Edwards
4.1 Update on Searches for Deans
SVCAA Edwards stated that the search for the Dean of the
SVCAA Edwards stated that the search committee for the Dean of Teachers
College has not been named yet. He
stated that they hope to advertise for the position soon and that a deadline
date of either December 1st or January 1st is being
considered for submission of applications.
He stated that they hope to have both new deans start during summer
2002. Sawyer pointed out that in order
to hire the best person, the university administration
needs to determine what role they want Teachers College to take in the
state.
5.0 VC Owens
5.1 Discrepancies Between
Salary Increases and Annual Evaluations
Bryant stated that he has received complaints from faculty that the
annual evaluation does not coincide with the salary increase that they were
given. VC Owens stated that part of the
problem might be that people are expecting a certain percentage of increase and
yet they receive less. He noted that this
part of the salary process needs to be improved. Fuller pointed out that it is unclear what
the standard raise is for a good annual evaluation. Bryant suggested that the Executive Committee
could ask the Faculty Compensation Advisory Committee to work on establishing a
standard raise of 3% for satisfactory performance. He noted that this would result in the Vice
Chancellors receiving a smaller portion of money for their use. Miller stated that comparable evaluations
need to be given if the increase is below the cost of living increase. Bryant stated that chairs need help with
doing the complex task of determining salary increases. VC Owens stated that there were good discussions
with the Deans at the recent retreat regarding this issue. He noted that a suggestion was made to hold
workshops and seminars to assist chairs with the salary increase process. Bryant stated that many faculty
did not receive any explanation regarding the amount of their increase. Fuller pointed out that faculty do not know
where the funds for their increase came from.
She stated that it was unclear as to whether the raise may have included
funding for gender equity, whether it was based on merit, and how much of it
came for the Dean’s or the department’s funding. SVCAA Edwards stated that he sent a letter
out to each faculty member who received funding from the Vice Chancellor’s
level. He stated that better
communication needs to happen between the chairs and the faculty members and
that they need to work with the chairs to help accomplish this task. He noted that it is important to pay
attention to the annual evaluations and the salary increases because they do
not always appear to be connected.
5.2
Item postponed due to lack of time.
5.3 Update on Dean of CASNR Search
VC Owens reported that the search is currently underway and that an
announcement for the position should be advertised soon.
6.0 Approval
of
Sawyer moved and Siekman seconded,
approval of the minutes as amended.
Motion approved.
7.0 Unfinished
Business
No unfinished
business was discussed.
8.0 New Business
No new business was discussed.
The meeting was adjourned at