FACULTY EVALUATION & COMPENSATION

REVIEW AD HOC COMMITTEE

(FECRAHC)

Tuesday, April 4, 2006 12:00p.m.

Room 2W37 of the Memorial Student Center

Members Present: Chuck Bailey, Marty Laubach, Rick McCormick, Larry Schmitz, Loukia Dixon, James Burton (chair), Blaker Bolling, Larry Stickler, Christina Murphy, David Hatfield

Members Absent: Wendell Dobbs, Wendy Moorhead (secretary), MUGC representative (to be elected)

Ex-Officio, Non-voting Members Present: Michael McGuffey, Janet Dooley

Ex-Officio, Non-voting Members Absent: Sarah Denman

Guest: Don VanHorn (representing the provost)

The meeting was called to order by the chair, Jim Burton, at approximately 12:05 p. m.  In the absence of the secretary, Rick McCormick was asked to take minutes.

AGENDA

1.         Approval of Minutes – March 3, 2006

There was much discussion concerning what to include in the minutes from the previous meeting.  Larry Stickler reminded the committee that under Roberts Rules of Order, only action items were to be included in official meeting minutes.  While there was a general agreement that noting discussion items in the minutes was an important way for other faculty to be better informed with respect to the things on which the committee was working, “rules were rules” and the previous meeting minutes were edited to remove discussion items.  The minutes of the previous meeting were then passed as edited, but with dissent in the final vote.

2.         Announcements

The chair announced that in the future, meeting announcements would be made through email and also with a posting to members’ calendars through Outlook.  

3.         Action Item

It was moved and seconded that the rules for minutes for this committee be changed to include discussion items.  This motion was voted on and passed, also with dissent.

4.         Review of the Committee Charge

The chair reminded the committee of its charge, which was two-fold:

            (a)  To examine the current process for faculty evaluation and compensation, and

            (b)  To recommend changes to the process if deemed necessary.

A question was raised as to what “examine” the process means.  Larry Stickler was asked to explain—he basically said that this committee was to look at the entire process and that it was up to the committee to decide how to proceed with the examination.

 

5.  Review Process

Marty Laubach suggested that the committee survey the faculty to ascertain their views on the current process.  A lively discussion followed.  One point raised was that we need to separate faculty “feelings” on the matter from concrete ideas on how to improve the process.  A point was made that because each college developed specific guidelines under the general university process that it makes it difficult to separate faculty views or complaints with the general university framework from the college specific rules or guidelines.

Another point of discussion was whether or not faculty were already “gaming” the system to their advantage.  Some committee members tried to distinguish between putting your best foot forward and negotiating your annual plan to fit your strengths, which is expected, and just numerically fiddling with the process to provide a remunerative benefit for yourself exclusive of any real merit.

The chair suggested a subcommittee be appointed consisting of himself, Marty Laubach, and Loukia Dixon to work on developing a survey which could be sent to faculty.  It again was suggested to develop the survey in such a way as to distinguish between complaints/problems with the general framework versus college specific issues.

It was moved and seconded that this subcommittee be formed and charged with preparing the survey.  The motion was voted on and passed without dissent.

6.  Materials to Review SR-04-05-(12) 69 FECAHC

The chair passed out copies of pages 3 through 6 of the evaluation document and asked

that the committee review these pages before the next meeting.

7.  Next meeting, date, time, location

The next meeting will be called by the chair as soon as the subcommittee can put together a trial survey.

8.  Adjournment

The meeting adjourned at 1:08 p. m.

Respectfully submitted,

Rick McCormick, TEMPORARY Secretary