COMMITTEE:  Faculty Welfare

 

MEETING DATE:  October 9, 2008

 

PERSON PRESIDING:  B. Southard

 

REGULAR MEMBERS IN ATTENDANCE: K. Dubose , A. Hegde , S. McGhee, M. Nasea, A. Peery

 

EX-OFFICIO MEMBERS IN ATTENDANCE:  C. Gold, B. Henze, L. Ingalls, J. Toller

 

ACTIONS OF THE MEETING:

 

Agenda Item:  Approval of minutes                                                                                    

Action Taken:  Minutes of the September 11 meeting were approved as written.

B. Southard reminded the committee members that a revised list of the Faculty Welfare Committee members with their updated telephone numbers is now available on the committee’s website.  

Agenda Item:  Medical Insurance for New Hires (M. Nasea and J. Toller)

Discussion: Revisions were proposed to amend Part VI. of the Faculty Manual

 

Sentences 8-10 now read:

The only exception would be an employee starting in August with a nine-month contract.  This employee will receive his/her first paycheck in September and therefore coverage would be effective the first of October.  The employee may start coverage September 1st but must pay the full cost.

 

Amend sentences 9-10 to read:

 

This employee will receive his/her first paycheck as early as possible but no later than September 15 while his/her coverage will become effective by no later than September 1.  The employee may start coverage at an earlier date but must pay the full cost.

 

Amended sentences 9-10 will read:

 

This employee will receive his/her first paycheck as early as possible but no later than September 15 while his/her coverage will become effective by no later than September 1.  The employee may start coverage at an earlier date but must pay the full cost.

 

The change to the revised sentence was moved by M. Nasea, seconded by J. Toller and approved unanimously.

 

A related discussion on this topic highlighted the need for the university to popularize the concept of COBRA for faculty and non-faculty members entering ECU, and also for graduate students who will be passing from ECU in search of other jobs.

 

 

Agenda Item:  Benefits Satisfaction Survey Report (J. Toller)

Discussion:  J. Toller stated that more time was required to complete a summary of the benefits survey before it is made available on the Faculty Senate website. Individuals interested in further exploring the survey will be asked to contact J. Toller for more information. 

 

Agenda Item:  Mentoring (M. Nasea)

Discussion:  M. Nasea mentioned that mentoring has been an important issue for this committee since 2004. Nevertheless, there is still more work to be done. The work conducted by the Center for Faculty Excellence for new and incoming faculty members was mentioned and appreciated. Bonnie Mani, a faculty member in the Political Science department, has been working on the issue of mentoring and is interested in meeting with the subcommittee, which consists of M. Nasea, S. McGhee and A. Peery. J. Toller and Dorothy Muller will also be consulted.

Future Agenda: Following S. McGhee’s request that clearer goals be defined for the sub-committee, the following goals were chalked out for this year:

1)     Understand and research the current practices of mentoring that are followed by the different departments on campus. This shall be done by contacting all the chairs from the different colleges.

2)     Revisit the prior survey and revise it to reflect the newer needs of mentoring.

3)     Implement these changes and consult with the Center for Faculty Excellence to make mentoring more effective for ECU.

Agenda Item: Changes in 403(B) plans

 

Discussion:  J. Toller mentioned that ECU will now have only two vendors for 403(B) plans: Fidelity and TIAA-CREF.  These vendors have been retained due to their presence on the web and the fund options that they offer. Additional discussion of retirement plans revolved around two questions:

 

1)     What happens to the investments of retired faculty members who had their accounts with AIG? Are the funds safe?

2)     Does the university have any plans on rehiring retired faculty members who may be in need of work due to loss of retirement funds?

 

Solutions: J. Toller reported that the local vendor of AIG was very optimistic about the situation with AIG. The subsidiary AIG agencies do not seem to be hugely affected by the current financial crisis.

 

L. Ingalls seemed optimistic about rehiring faculty members who may be in need of work.

 

The Faculty Welfare Committee requested that there be over-communication so that people affiliated with ECU are assured of their finances in times of crisis. Financial experts may be invited to an open forum where they can discuss this issue.

 

Agenda Item: UNC Tomorrow, Response on Faculty Recruitment and Retention.

Discussion:  The report on increasing enrollment has been completed. B. Southard and J. Toller are a part of a subcommittee on faculty recruitment and retention and they seem to have enough information to put together. In the meeting it was reported that the chairs of the various departments were happy with the recruitment efforts due to their ability to offer competitive salaries to the faculty members.  However, a few factors were mentioned that negatively impacted recruitment efforts: lack of support from the administration for start up funds and lack of a sabbatical policy were two that were reported.

Agenda Item: Faculty Salary Study 

Discussion:  J. Toller reported that presently ECU does not have a good way to measure and track salary changes. However, due to the advent of Banner, in the future comparisons between the past and the present salary structures will be made possible. The need for more transparency within the units and colleges was considered important in this discussion.

 

 

Meeting adjourned at 5:30.

 

Next meeting: November 13, 2008

 

Items to be discussed:

 

            B. Southard will work to develop an agenda for the next meeting.

 

 

Respectfully submitted,

 

Archana V Hegde