Ohio University’s Board of Trustees committed to raising all faculty salaries within the next three years, and faculty gathered Monday night to hold preliminary discussion on how to make that happen.
The Faculty Compensation Plan passed Friday at the board meeting intends to propel all OU faculty salaries to be among the third highest for state universities in Ohio.
Currently, OU faculty salaries rank from sixth to eighth, depending on faculty titles.
OU administrators, with the help of Faculty Senate, will decide how to distribute funding for this year’s paychecks at the end of the year. The provost’s office will ultimately make the final decision, said Ben Stuart, chairman of the finance and facilities committee.
The resolution, on its first draft, comprises three parts. Together, the resolution asks that:
• A reasonable percentage of the money allocated for this year’s raise pool increase should be given to faculty across-the-board, or the same for each unit (professor, assistant professor or associate professor) of faculty groups on the Athens and regional campus
• The across-the-board money should be given as a fixed dollar amount for each unit, rather than a percentage of each professors’ salary
• Any remaining portion of the raise pool should be given to deans and departments to distribute as merit-based raises
“The idea there was to say that everyone should benefit,” Stuart said. “What we’re trying to say is everyone as a professor is valued dollar-wise.”
The committee had not established a percentage of the raise pool it would like to receive as a fixed amount, though senators discussed suggesting a rate of 50 percent.
The remaining percentage of the raise pool would be distributed between deans and departments to be used as merit increases for outstanding faculty members.
“This is a three-year process, so this first year is going to be a very quick turnaround,” Stuart said. “It is an ongoing process, so this is something that we’ll want to have discussions on a continuous basis.”
OU President Roderick McDavis also made an appearance to address the language in Ohio House Bill 472, which would require faculty of all Ohio public higher education institutions to increase their workload by 10 percent, which could be passed into law Dec. 31.
McDavis said it was still early in discussion in both the house and the Inter-University Council, a coalition of Ohio’s public universities, but the council was previously instrumental in removing a similar policy.
The next Faculty Senate meeting will take place April 14, where the senate will elect next year’s chair, voting between Beth Quitslund, the senate secretary and an English professor, and Kenneth Hicks, a senator and physics and astronomy professor.
dk123111@ohiou.edu
@DanielleRose84
