Faculty members could get 4.5 percent pay increase

by Brittany Yingling
Staff Writer

Ohio University faculty members might pocket higher paychecks next year after the Faculty Senate adopted a resolution last night that would increase faculty salaries 4.5 percent next academic year.

Gary Moden, chairman of the Finance and Facilities Committee, presented the resolution for its first reading. This increase would reimburse faculty members for the rising inflation rate, which was 3.4 percent as of November 2000, he said.

"Our group one faculty are probably at an all-time high in productivity," he said.

Group one faculty members are those on a tenure track, according to a faculty salary

equity study conducted by OU's Office of Institutional Research.

The resolution would help OU regain the ground it has lost with its peer universities regarding faculty salaries, Moden said. OU ranked sixth of 13 Ohio public universities last year and dropped again this year.

Moden presented the results of the study.

Faculty members whose predicted salaries are greater than one standard error above their base salaries might receive more pay, he said. A standard error is calculated using faculty position, the highest degree obtained, years since earning the degree and age.

The dean of each professor's college will evaluate the professor's salary based on merit, and salaries will be adjusted accordingly, said Faculty Senate Chairman Gary Pfeiffer.

"We're probably looking at $200,000 to fix the problem on the Athens campus," Moden said.

Institutional research conducted other studies that sought to identify differences in salaries between sexes, Moden said. But the studies did not find any significant gaps between males and females.

"We're trying to establish, 'Is there a pattern here of inequity?'" he said.

One study analyzed which positions those who were assistant professors in 1993 ended up in by 2000, he said. No gaps larger than 3 percent were recorded between males and females.

In other news, OU Provost Sharon Brehm announced Tim Hartman, associate professor of marketing, will be chairman of a committee that will study the University College's role, she said.

The Provost's Office will appoint another committee next week to search for an interim college dean, Brehm said. Patricia Richard, dean of University College, will retire in August 2001, she said in a Nov. 13 Post article.

Brehm said she is leaning toward conducting an external search to draw a diverse pool of candidates for a permanent University College dean.

Brehm also approved a resolution adopted by the senate in Fall Quarter 2000, Pfeiffer said. It will require students to add classes via the Touch-tone Registration and Information Processing System before the eighth day of each quarter, according to a Nov. 14 Post article.

The resolution then will proceed to OU registrar Bill Jones, who will decide when it will go into effect.