During a presentation to Ohio University's Board of Trustees last Thursday, Faculty Senate Chairman Joe McLaughlin asked the trustees to re-evaluate their priorities.
Citing inconsistencies in financial support for faculty and Intercollegiate Athletics, McLaughlin stated that faculty compensation should receive more attention than the Intercollegiate Athletics budget because it is one of the board's six stated strategic priorities.
The Board of Trustees compiled a list of six priorities in 2009 that focused on curriculum, research, enrollment and a $350 capital campaign to support academics.
Trustees amended one of those priorities today by voting to increase the capital campaign goal to $450 million, but in the area of faculty compensation, more could be done, McLaughlin said.
Board of Trustees Chairwoman M. Marnette Perry said she believes the financial decisions being made reflect the board's priorities.
We're putting our money where our priorities are
she said. ... we have lived up to that strategic commitment. It's just plain important to us she added.
A report released by the American Association of University Professors indicated that OU fell from third to seventh in Ohio university faculty salary rankings. The decline removed OU from the top percentile, a distinction McLaughlin cited as being historically important to the Board of Trustees. Anecdotal projections for raise pools in fiscal year 2011 suggest OU's rankings won't improve.
We're losing grounds to other institutions that face the same economic challenges McLaughlin said, later adding, I think (the trustees are) listening. I think they understand it's important. What I didn't get a sense of today is how seriously they take this fairly significant decline in the rankings.
The discussion of faculty compensation and the Intercollegiate Athletics budget isn't a new one, nor has it been forgotten, OU President Roderick McDavis said.
Intercollegiate Athletics started the year with a balanced budget
and we anticipate them to live within that budget
he said, adding the recently announced $750,000 merit pool for faculty is an example of the efforts OU's administration has made in the past several years regarding faculty compensation.
Pam Benoit, OU's executive vice president and provost, proposed the creation of the merit pool. As OU's administration makes compensation decisions, it is important to realize that all aspects of compensation are being examined, not just faculty salaries, she said.
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Rebecca McKinsey
