SEE FOR YOURSELVES

(A version of this email message was sent to all faculty on June 10, the same day local papers reported on a motion in Faculty Senate to organize into a collective bargaining unit.)

During the past two spring quarters, in 2006 and 2007, OU-AAUP has conducted an evaluation of top Ohio University administrators. This year, the chapter planned to conduct the same evaluation as well as a simple confidence vote on the OU Board of Trustees. The evaluation will happen but only in the beginning of Fall Quarter. Here's why.

We kept waiting to send out the evaluations, wondering whether the administration had more surprises to announce in the waning days of the academic year. They have not disappointed. The trustees reappointed the president in violation of their own new evaluation procedures. Then Kathy Krendl blatantly ignored the unanimous resolution of Faculty Senate to give across-the-board, cost-of-living increases to all faculty members. But even that is now old news.

Our purpose in delaying the evaluation until the fall is to allow faculty the opportunity to find out more about issues that may affect us all greatly in the near future. Some of these matters are not yet resolved, for example the administration's plan to grab up faculty and staff healthcare surpluses that President McDavis had promised would always be returned to employees or preserved as a rainy-day healthcare fund. This is no bonus to give or take at whim but a real part of our compensation, which OU regularly states when reporting total faculty compensation statistics every year.

We also need much more information about the announcement that came during the last week of classes regarding the move from quarters to semesters. What kind of workload will the administration promote under their plan for semesters? What compensation will faculty receive for revamping curriculum and classes? We should worry when and how these decisions will be made, beginning with the selection of the proposed committee to examine different semester scenarios. Meanwhile, pay attention to how the same changeover may proceed at University of Cincinnati, where the faculty has a union.

Finally, faculty members have yet to see how raises, including the money promised in Vision Ohio, will be distributed this year, an inflationary year in which little movement in the ranking of OU faculty salaries occurred, even with the additional merit-based bump received by some faculty members last year. For your information, the spring OU-AAUP Chapter analysis of the effect of the 2007 raise is attached below.

No doubt, more important news will seep out during the summer, while most of us are pursuing the scholarly projects and summer programs that help make our profession rewarding. When we all return in the fall, however, this AAUP chapter will try to help sort out what matters most and conduct the evaluation of the president and provost and the confidence vote on the trustees.

Best wishes for the summer,

Kevin Uhalde, President

AAUP Salary Data for 2007-08.pdf