COMMITTEE:  Faculty Welfare

 

MEETING DATE:  November 13, 2008

 

PERSON PRESIDING:  B. Southard

 

REGULAR MEMBERS IN ATTENDANCE: K. DuBose, S. McGhee, A. Peery, J. Reisch

 

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

 

GUEST IN ATTENDANCE:  L. Lee

 

 

ACTIONS OF THE MEETING:

 

Agenda Item:  Approval of minutes                                                                                    

Action Taken:  Minutes of the October 9 2008 meeting were approved as written.

 

Agenda Item:  Medical Insurance for New Hires

Discussion: Further revisions were proposed to amend Part VI. of the Faculty Manual.  It was agreed that the sentences 8-10 discussed at the October meeting are not needed in either their original form or in the revised form approved by the committee at the October meeting.

 

J. Reisch moved (A. Peery seconded) to delete the following sentences (8-10):

 

"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."

 

Motion passed unanimously.

 

 

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

Discussion: J. Toller stated that he is still preparing a summary of the benefits satisfaction survey. He will make this report available soon on the Faculty Senate website. He also reported that the data set could be made available upon request to those interested in further analysis of the data.

 

Agenda Item: Faculty Salary Study (J. Toller)

Discussion: J. Toller reported that by December 1, the PDF (Personnel Data File) will be posted and available to faculty and others.

 

J. Toller explained that he would like to form a university committee to develop a consistent data set and procedure for reporting and analyzing faculty salaries. The purpose of the committee will be to enable faculty and administrators to make informed judgments and to enable oversight regarding how faculty salary decisions are applied in practice. He highlighted the goals of "access" and "transparency."

 

B. Southard noted the need to collect this data early, since a fundamental charge of the Faculty Welfare committee is to report annually to the faculty senate about faculty salaries.

 

 

Agenda Item: Rejection of proposed revisions to Part VI.I.J. Salary Policies of the ECU Faculty Manual

 

Discussion: The committee discussed the chancellor's rejection (dated October 22, 2008) of this committee's proposed revisions to Faculty Manual Part VI.I.J, approved by the Faculty Senate February 20, 2007. (See FSR #07-04.)

 

L. Ingalls explained that the intention of the proposed revisions was to bring the manual into conformity with the existing policy. Members were uncertain about the reasons for the chancellor's rejection of the proposed revisions and the future steps to be taken by the committee, if any.

 

L. Lee noted that the existing version of the manual remains inaccurate, and that some version resembling the committee's revision still needs to be created to bring the faculty manual in line with the actual policy, particularly in the first section, where details of the pay process are described.

 

J. Toller, representative of the chancellor, agreed to discuss these revisions with the chancellor and report back to the committee.

 

 

Meeting adjourned at 4:21pm.

 

 

Next meeting: December 11, 2008

 

 

Items to be discussed:

 

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

 

Respectfully submitted,

 

Brent Henze