Faculty Affairs Committee

Minutes 11.15.04

Members attending:	Kate Grieshaber, Diane Harney, Greg Johnson, Marilyn Newcomer-Culp, Tamara Williams, Dane Wu
Advisors attending:	Tony Evans

The minutes from 11.8.04 were approved. There were no committee reports. Dane informed us that, due to scheduling conflicts, he is unable to attend IRC meetings. A new representative will be selected from FAC.

The proposed comprehensive salary committee was discussed. President Anderson has requested a meeting with Greg Johnson, Tamara Williams, Chuck Bergman, and Jim Pence about this proposal. Kate distributed a sample salary schedule from Fairfax County Public Schools as an example.

The idea of examining the ratio of budget to academic programs was introduced. Jim Clapper has information should the committee wish to use this approach as we discuss the salary pool. Tamara Williams agreed to compile ideas an recommendations that came from our interviews with Deans. Shari Tonn will be invited to the 11.22 FAC meeting to discuss the available pool.

The remainder of the meeting was spent discussing our response Jim Pence’s memo of 11.1.04 on academic structure. Both a written response and another meeting were considered. Our discussion identified several issues about the memo:

• Why is hierarchical an improvement over a flat structure
• How would these changes improve student learning? The quality of faculty life? The allocation of resources?
• The lack of a clear rationale or compelling evidence
• The need to address our organizational culture
• The focus on efficiency rather than effectiveness
• The failure to consult any previous work by this committee
• Failure to address the external forces that impact PLU
• The overall lack of specifics

The conversation about the memo and our response will be continued at the November 22 meeting.

Respectfully submitted,

Diane M. Harney