COMMITTEE: Faculty Welfare

MEETING DATE: March 6, 2007

PERSON PRESIDING: D. Lawrence

REGULAR MEMBERS IN ATTENDANCE: D. Clark, A. Dralle, D.Lawrence, S. McGhee, J. Salstrom, B. Southard

EX-OFFICIO MEMBERS IN ATTENDANCE: B. Henze, L. Ingalls, S. Simpson

OTHERS IN ATTENDANCE: B. Koch, J. Tawney

ACTIONS OF MEETING:

Agenda Item: Approval of minutes

Action Taken: B. Southard/S. Simpson motioned approval of the minutes of February 8, 2007 meeting. Motion passed.

Agenda Item: Retired faculty parking

Discussion: B. Koch and J. Tawney (Parking & Traffic Services) reviewed current parking policies for retired faculty and discussed a parking request from the ECU Retired Faculty Association (RFA). Currently retired faculty are provided a B permit at no charge. Suggestions for fully retired faculty included combining a new ‘AR’ permit (no charge and excluded from allotment count) with additional reserved parking spaces approximating the RFA request. Discussion was supportive of continuing to allow retired faculty who are re-hired by the University to purchase, as available, an A permit at half price without wait-listing. Koch and Tawney will report to Faculty Welfare again after meeting the RFA to discuss options.

Additional Assigned Duties: B. Koch and J. Tawney will provide a revised proposal to Faculty Welfare after discussion with the ECU Retired Faculty Association. Welfare will review and consider a resolution for the next Faculty Senate meeting.

Agenda Item: Software privileges for emeritus faculty

Discussion: Emeritus faculty are excluded from the ECU site license for software. Consensus was that they should be included if the cost is not extreme.

Additional Assigned Duties: D. Lawrence will contact ITCS to identify problems and expenses associated with including retired faculty in the software license as well as solutions. Lawrence will report to Welfare at the next meeting.

Agenda Item: Benefits sub-committee – J. Salstrom

Discussion: The sub-committee completed development of the survey and is now obtaining input from ECU peer institutions. J.Toller is working with staff and student workers to compile existing data. Further information will be presented at the next meeting.

Agenda Item: Salary sub-committee report – D. Lawrence

Discussion: Initial analysis of salary data for three colleges was discussed. B. Southard explained odd and illogical occurrences in the data that raise the question of trusting it. D. Lawrence questioned the impact of retiring/departing professor rank faculty on the means. A. Dralle noted some indicators of inversions. Unless there is a true salary inversion, there is little that is clear from the data analysis. Overall the quality of the data was suspect, there are too many variables to control, and it was agreed that it should not be used for further decisions. B. Henze suggested that salary compression and inversion concerns would logically present from the faculty level to administrative levels.

Revisiting the original task of identifying and solving the worst cases of salary compression and inversion, B. Southard noted that the administration had provided some funds last year to address salary issues based on departmental requests. Welfare will continue to monitor administrative actions to address the problem. Salary issues will be continued in the goals for Faculty Welfare next year.

Additional Assigned Duties: Draft a statement to support administration’s attempt to resolve the problem and encourage continued efforts.

Agenda Item: Mentoring sub-committee report – S. McGhee

Discussion: The first revision of the existing faculty mentoring policy is under review. The sub-committee will meet to refine the draft before presenting to Faculty Welfare. The sub-committee requests that this task be continued in the goals for next year.

Agenda Item: New Business

Discussion: After reviewing emails concerning renovation of Mendenhall Student Center and inclusion of a request for a faculty club, Welfare determined that the project was in the advanced planning stage and already over budget. For those reasons, Welfare declined to request inclusion of a faculty club in the Mendenhall at this time. Discussion of a faculty club is warranted and will be carried over to the committee goals for next year.

Additional duties assigned: D. Lawrence will prepare Faculty Welfare’s annual report for the next meeting.

The meeting adjourned at 5:07 pm.

NEXT MEETING: April 12, 2007

ITEMS TO BE DISCUSSED:

Parking for retired faculty

Emeritus faculty software privileges

Sub-committee reports:

Benefits

Salary

Mentoring

Annual Report

Respectfully submitted,

Susan A. McGhee