Faculty Senate

1. Discussion of Budget Resolution
   See slightly revised version that is attached below.
   
   Report and Discussion on Resolutions in Regards to Executive Administrative Searches
   Faculty Senate Executive Committee and Budget Reconciliation Committee
   
   
2. Strategic Framework for the '03 Budget Formulation
   a) Presentation from the Budget Reconciliation Committee: Sherm Bloomer and Clara Pratt
   b) Discussion
   
   
3. Discussion of Faculty Salary Raises
   a) Budget Reconciliation Committee has asked for a faculty discussion of faculty salary raises. All points of view are welcome. Reference material for discussion of faculty salary issues is available on the web at: http://osu.orst.edu/dept/senate/salary.00.html.
   b) Attached below is a letter from the Faculty Economic Welfare and Retirement Committee regarding Faculty Salary Increases.
   
   
4. Discussion of Redesign
   The initial redesign document will be available during the week of November 26 and will be discussed at the December 6th Faculty Senate meeting. The November 15 proactive discussion may include such questions as these (generated by the Executive Committee):

What is the goal of the redesign?
• Should we plan and implement the redesign or not? What are the benefits and what are the costs?
  Does it save money? How much will it cost to implement the redesign? Is it likely to succeed in the present climate of distrust and budget instability? How do we energize the faculty in this process?
• What are the criteria for redesign?
• How do we find the inefficiencies?
• How representative is the redesign committee?
• What is the proper process for redesign? Should it start from below?

Copies of the documents referenced above
will not be available at the meeting

OSU Faculty Senate Draft Resolution
Transparency and Accountability in the Budget Process at OSU

Whereas, Overspending has occurred at OSU, most often with good intentions for new programs or functions, but without the full cognizance of budget implications for other programs and functions;

Whereas, In the Category I process, the Curriculum Council, the Budgets and Fiscal Planning Committee, the Graduate Council, the Faculty Senate Executive Committee and the full Faculty Senate require adequate budget information in order to make informed decisions on whether programs should be created or sustained; and

Whereas, The Budgets and Fiscal Planning Committee and Faculty Senate Executive Committee have been asking for participation, transparency, and accountability over the past five years; therefore, be it

Resolved, That the budget process at Oregon State University should become transparent and accountable.
2. That the budget process should occur in the context of the academic needs of the university.
3. That budget material should be available on the Web in a continuous and discernible form.
4. That this process will consist of:

• Knowledge of the amount of money that comes from OUS--how it is generated, how it is earmarked and targeted, and how it is ultimately allocated.
• Knowledge of base budgets, revenues, expenditures and continued liabilities of all units.
• Increased and adequate reporting and monitoring of budgeting and spending in all units.
• Meaningful and continuous faculty participation in all stages of the budget process with specific inclusion of the Faculty Senate Executive Committee and the Budgets and Fiscal Planning Committee in the budget process.
• Regular consultation by administrators responsible for the budget process with the members of the Budgets and Fiscal Planning Committee and the Faculty Senate Executive Committee.
• Faculty involvement in decisions about what funds should be lobbied for in the legislature, given the larger picture of available and necessary funds.
• Determination of what the definitions of "academic" and "non-academic" are to allow sorting of functional areas of the budget. All reporting will be calibrated according to these definitions.
• Detailed time tables for development of the budget. Budget process will begin by February 1 every year. Draft budget should be released to faculty in the spring.
• If there is a budget concern, administration should engage faculty, staff and student representatives before a public announcement is made by the university. Standard fiscal management practices will be applied to the perceived budget issue.

Recommendation on Executive Searches

At its November 6, 2001 Executive Committee meeting, the Executive Committee voted unanimously to forward the following recommendation to the President and Provost.

All executive administrative hires should be done internally and should be fixed term until the new redesign is resolved and ready to be implemented.

This recommendation reflects the campus climate that in a time when we will be cutting positions and holding or freezing hires at lower levels, it is inappropriate for executive administration searches to continue. This
recommendation also recognizes that new executive hires would hamper the ability of the redesign process to go forward in a free and creative manner.

The members of the FY 02/FY 03 Budget Reconciliation Group respectfully recommend that all external searches for administrative positions be postponed until at least July 1, 2002. Postponing administrative searches for this academic year is in concert with the hiring freeze that is proposed in the FY 02 Budget Reconciliation Plan.

If external searches have progressed to the extent that finalists have been identified and/or a final candidate selected, we recommend that interviews and/or hiring dates be postponed until July 1, 2002.

This is to furnish our input as representatives of the Faculty Senate and the Faculty Economic Welfare and Retirement Committee on the issue of faculty raises. We begin by noting the following:

In response to the May 2000 Issue Group on Faculty Compensation,
the OSU administration has affirmed that faculty salaries are a top
priority.

The recent changes in benefit allocation will result in a decrease in
the size of paychecks for the approximately 77% of faculty who
received cashback. The reasons for these changes are complex and
for the most part out of the hands of the OSU administration. But
the fact remains that we are in a tie when most faculty will be losing
ground with regard to their pay. This will have serious implications
for faculty morale.

Both the rumors and the realities of institutional reorganization
will also take their toll on faculty morale, and may make
recruitment and retention of faculty more difficult.

We recommend, therefore, that there should be faculty salary increases over the next two years, and that they be as high as possible, and certainly competitive with those at other OUS institutions. We further recommend that a portion of the raises be across-the-board for fully satisfactory service, and a portion for merit/equity to remedy inequities and reward the most productive. We feel that it would be a mistake to leave some faculty with nothing at all, especially given the conditions cited above. If the number is 4% per year, we would recommend 2% for fully satisfactory service and 2% for merit/equity. Finally, we recommend that units have broad discretion in the awarding of merit increases, and that they not be limited to a specific percentage of the faculty.

This is a time of particular stress, when faculty have been working particularly hard and dealing with increasing numbers of students. Our sister institutions will likely give such increases; and Classified staff have received increases. We believe that foregoing salary increases at this time would be extremely discouraging to faculty and would make recruitment of qualified faculty to OSU and retention of exceptional faculty extremely difficulty.

We will be pleased to discuss these recommendations and these and other rationales for them should you wish to do so.