Funding short for faculty and staff raises
Utah State University’s Faculty Senate held a forum on Monday afternoon for all members of the faculty. The senate’s goal this year is to be able to provide more information about the university and about what’s going on in it; one of the ways it accomplishes this is through these forums.
The first speaker was USU Provost Stan Albrecht. He tackled what has been a touchy subject for a while now, the new policy limiting the terms of department heads. Albrecht said the university “lacks clearly defined procedures that define entry, conditions of service and exit for those faculty members who serve in administrative assignments.”
This policy would provide those clearly defined procedures and limits for filling and evaluating the administrative positions, Albrecht said, and would help make the transition from an administrative position back to a faculty position smoother. He said people often feel they are failing or giving up when they leave an administrative position, but this new policy would make it easier to leave.
There was some concern that the five-year limit set by the new policy was too short, but Albrecht told the faculty the average term of service for a department head is only five to seven years anyway. The new policy also allows for a second term of service, the length of which would be discussed between the department head and the dean of the applicable college.
The next speaker was Caryn-Beck Dudley, dean of the College of Business. She spoke about the new two-tier system that was put in effect last year. The switch was made in order to control the costs of the health plans and to give the faculty a choice between two different plans. The statistics of the success or failure of the switch won’t be available until the end of this month.
The faculty was also told of an expected 13 to 14 percent increase in the general cost of health care next year. Regents have requested a 12 percent increase in the budget as a preemptive strike against these rises, but this will not cover the entire increase.
After Dudley, President Kermit L. Hall took the floor to speak about USU’s financial situation. Hall said that compared to every other school in Utah, “we are the strongest in terms of financial strength.” The faculty was assured that USU is financially stable, and has no cause for worry about long-term financial debts.
“No one has to worry about waking up one morning to find out we’ve been bought out by Proctor & Gamble,” Hall said.
Hall said that some of the projects to look forward to in the future include a new parking terrace and some enhancements to the food services in the Taggart Student Center, although a renovation to the Animal Science Building doesn’t look probable. He addressed salary increases next.
“I don’t think we can or want to go a third year without a salary increase,” Hall said.
The hard part about salary increases is finding the funds to support them, Hall said. This isn’t necessarily a problem for schools where the annual tuition is in the $10,000s, but for USU, where resident tuition is only $1,307, any increase in tuition is dangerous. A 1 percent increase in tuition would only provide $140,000 in funds. Tuition would need to be raised 2.3 percent in order to provide for a 1 percent salary increase, Hall said.
Hall is concerned for the students and wants to keep USU’s recruitment and retention rates high, however, and assured the faculty that “we will certainly raise the issue with [the students].”
Other topics discussed included mentoring opportunities for junior faculty members and procedures for promotion and tenure.
-sophisan@cc.usu.edu