2008 Woodie Awards
Faculty Senate creates plan to request greater pay increase
By Regis L. Roberts
Issue date: 4/4/08 Section: News
Originally published: 4/3/08 at 5:50 PM CSTLast update: 4/3/08 at 5:48 PM CST
At Wednesday's Faculty Senate meeting, members focused on the size of their pocket books.
English Instructor Jane Focht-Hansen prompted fellow senators to devise the best way for faculty members to get as much of an increase in salary as possible.
"I will remind you that in the past, at least in my memory, we ask, but we do not receive what we ask," Focht-Hansen said. "For example, last year, we asked for 8 percent, the negotiation agreement was at 5.5 and when the board got done with us it was 4.5."
She originally suggested asking for a 6 percent increase as being a good starting point.
Counselor Jan Starnes suggested a good way to calculate a starting figure would be to ask Chancellor Bruce Leslie for a salary increase in line with standards of living.
A good standard for figuring this out would be proposing a salary increase 2 percent above the Consumer Price Index, which, for all items, including food, housing, medical and transportation costs, among other things, showed a 4 percent increase for the previous 12 months in February.
This calculation, Focht-Hansen and other members said, would fall in line with the 6 percent increase.
Rocky Conrad, computer information systems professor, said Faculty Senate should not be timid when asking for compensation increases.
"Why aren't we asking for 10 percent?" Conrad asked.
New developments in administration should encourage Faculty Senate to be ambitious in compensation increase requests, he said.
"Why should we go backward?" he asked. "We got a brand new chancellor, we got brand new vice chancellors from different parts of the country. Let's start high from now on."
Librarian John Deosdade volunteered to crunch numbers on past compensation increases over the past five years compared with changes in the cost of living for the same time period.
This, however, presented a problem for Faculty Senate, as historical documents containing exact figures on proposed compensation increases and the amount actually awarded were not available.
English Instructor Jane Focht-Hansen prompted fellow senators to devise the best way for faculty members to get as much of an increase in salary as possible.
"I will remind you that in the past, at least in my memory, we ask, but we do not receive what we ask," Focht-Hansen said. "For example, last year, we asked for 8 percent, the negotiation agreement was at 5.5 and when the board got done with us it was 4.5."
She originally suggested asking for a 6 percent increase as being a good starting point.
Counselor Jan Starnes suggested a good way to calculate a starting figure would be to ask Chancellor Bruce Leslie for a salary increase in line with standards of living.
A good standard for figuring this out would be proposing a salary increase 2 percent above the Consumer Price Index, which, for all items, including food, housing, medical and transportation costs, among other things, showed a 4 percent increase for the previous 12 months in February.
This calculation, Focht-Hansen and other members said, would fall in line with the 6 percent increase.
Rocky Conrad, computer information systems professor, said Faculty Senate should not be timid when asking for compensation increases.
"Why aren't we asking for 10 percent?" Conrad asked.
New developments in administration should encourage Faculty Senate to be ambitious in compensation increase requests, he said.
"Why should we go backward?" he asked. "We got a brand new chancellor, we got brand new vice chancellors from different parts of the country. Let's start high from now on."
Librarian John Deosdade volunteered to crunch numbers on past compensation increases over the past five years compared with changes in the cost of living for the same time period.
This, however, presented a problem for Faculty Senate, as historical documents containing exact figures on proposed compensation increases and the amount actually awarded were not available.
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