Please feel free to comment on the April 29th faculty meeting here.
I received one anonymous comment on a card at the meeting:
I think that the IS [International Studies] proposal needs to be considered before the summer.
Please feel free to comment on the April 29th faculty meeting here.
I received one anonymous comment on a card at the meeting:
I think that the IS [International Studies] proposal needs to be considered before the summer.
Clerk’s Committee met on April 13th and April 20th to evaluate the requests for tenure-track positions that we received from a variety of departments and programs of the college. Zhihong Chen and Sherry Giles recused themselves because their departments made requests, and Garland Granger replaced Sherry on the committee as BPS representative. Zhihong is on Clerk’s as Recording Clerk, so Lisa McLeod was still present to represent the Humanities division.
Clerk’s evaluated the position requests at those two meetings and compiled a set of recommendations which we shared with the President. We submitted this on April 21st. Historically, these discussions and recommendations have been kept confidential at this stage in the process. We will be providing individual feedback to all departments who submitted proposals soon.
Clerk’s committee has also been involved in preliminary interviews this week with candidates for the interim academic dean position. Our role in this process is described in this post, and we have been following this process and schedule.
The minutes from our April 1st faculty meeting are available on Moodle here.
Moodle login is required to access these minutes.
Ad Hoc Gen Ed Review Committee
Meeting Notes
April 17
We held a community forum on a fair salary policy on April 8, 2015. There’s more information about this including other materials here: Salary Policy Home
At the community forum, we provided large poster sheets on the wall for people to add comments. We divided these into four general areas:
Principles – principles and goals we would like to use in crafting a salary policy
Process – ideas for how we might go about creating and implementing a salary policy
Concerns – potential problems or issues we might run into during this process
Ideas – Other ideas, concepts, or thinking to take into account while thinking about compensation issues.
Below, I’ve transcribed these sheets, keeping these categories. In places, I’ve expanded some of the entries for clarity. Feel free to comment or respond below.
- Ratio between highest and lowest paid employees
- Use accurate benchmarks to compensate staff comparably to relevant institutions for all of the work they do
- Inclusiveness
- Transparency
- Start from living wage for lowest paid: Start from basic need and justice
- Simplicity
- Mindful of anti-oppression work in process
- Gender/race equity in salary decisions
- Job security for staff
- longer contracts?
- tenure or job protection
- Salaries should reflect training/education and hours
- A living wage is in alignment with Guilford values
- Develop staff level or rank policy and detailed position descriptions with annual review (merit raises)
- “Exceptional” circumstances we are facing now should lead to an exceptional and inclusive process
- Clear, open, safe communication
- Effective, responsive, accountable
- Performance reviews should matter and connect to salary
- The process needs benchmarks and deadlines
- We should have standardized annual reviews for faculty and staff
- The process needs official support from the president and trustees
- We need all (including trustees) to agree in principle on issues like a living wage and basic ratio limits
- Endowed chairs or other donations may be distorting salaries
- When looking at averages for staff salaries, we need to take highly compensated administrators out of the aggregate
- There is no clarity behind the upcoming cut decisions
- We need to weigh budget woes vs. human capital
- We are losing good people to low salary
- Supervisory roles are not always clearly defined or awarded
- Do high salaries reflect actual performance at Guilford?
- We need a better process for part-time hiring
- Salary problems affect our community and our ability to recruit students and employees
- Re-allocation of executive compensation to promote equity
- Give folks on the bottom immediate relief such as paying in full their health premiums
- Possible staff policies
- Flex time
- Leave sharing
- Vacation accrual
- Reducing the number of vice presidents
- Vice presidents going back to faculty salary levels
- In the first year of this policy, make equity a priority for lowest paid @ 130% of poverty level
- Our efforts should be connected to national discussions and actions, such as the Faculty Forward movement
- We should post salaries for advertised positions
- We should re-title vice president positions to directors, which could reduce salary expectations
We held a community forum on a fair salary policy on April 8, 2015. There’s more information about this including other materials here: Salary Policy Home.
The following comments were received on anonymous notecards turned in at the forum.
Regarding concepts for Guilford to consider
Staff: Using level of education to determine pay difference for similar positions across campus (Bachelor’s vs. Master’s)
Process – A need for an appeal process regarding salaries. As a part time faculty member the Dean cut my salary for a course I had taught for several years, and she stated my salary for those several years “had been a mistake.” Human Resources could offer no help – they don’t know anything about faculty salaries – and neither was the ombudsperson. I was told I could just not teach any longer if I didn’t like it. Later, in another situation I realized I had not been paid for a course taught the year before. The dean acknowledged I hadn’t been paid, but tried to tell me it was too late. I threatened a lawsuit and got paid, but there’s too much power in that position!
Faculty Forward – adjuncts and non-tenure-track campaign for a livable wage – April Parker
At our faculty meeting on April 1, the faculty approved the following two statements with regard to salaries and compensation at Guilford.
1) We call for the college to create a committee that will establish and implement a principled and just salary policy that would allow living wages for all employees, an equitable and fair distribution of pay among staff, faculty, and administrators, and salary distribution among faculty and staff members that fairly reflects their past experience, rank and time of service at the college, without bias.
We call for a clear demonstration from the Board and the administration that they support this effort, including invitation for participation by Board members and the provision of institutional support and resources required for the committee to complete this work in a timely manner.
2) Consistent with our core values, we request that from this point forward, salaries, bonuses, and other compensation for senior administrative staff be reported to the community clearly and regularly at the start of each academic year and whenever their contracts change.
For both of these statements, Betty Kane asked to be recorded as standing aside for their approval.
Related to this topic, we held a community forum on a fair salary policy on April 8, 2015. There’s more information about this including other materials here: Salary Policy Home
Ad Hoc General Education Curriculum Review Committee
Friday, April 17
12:45 p.m.
Study Abroad/Career Development Conference Room, King Hall
Agenda
1. Moment of silence
2. Approval of notes from last meeting, 4/10/15; note taker for this meeting
3. Review report to faculty—Google doc shared with committee members—please add in portions assigned to you and review other portions
4. Determine next steps and next meeting
The Benefits Committee invites your feedback in the following survey regarding our benefits package. The survey will be open until midnight on Thursday, April 16th. Both the survey results and the committee’s final recommendation to the President will be shared with the community.
Clerk’s Committee Meeting Agenda Monday April 13, 2015 8:30 am
1. Gathering and Moment of Silence – 3 minutes
2. Approval of Minutes from April 6, 2015 – 2 minutes
3. For review: Proposals for new tenure track positions – 60 minutes
4. Closing silence
Note: Zhihong Chen (Recording Clerk) will be released from Clerk’s for this meeting, as her department has proposals under consideration. Lisa McLeod will still be present to represent Humanities. Garland Granger (Accounting) will replace Sherry Giles (JPS).