President’s Report

given to the University Senate on April 23, 2007

submitted by President Leland

President Leland noted that this would be her last meeting as the presiding officer of the University Senate.  She stated that she is delighted with recent Bylaw changes that give this role to an elected member of the faculty, and she applauded this change as a positive development in the evolution of shared governance at Georgia College.  The President also thanked members of the Bylaw revision committed, chaired by J.W. Good, for their efforts to sharpen the focus of Senate business through a new committee structure.  These Bylaw revisions were unanimously endorsed by the Senate and also have been formally approved by the President.

President Leland reported that a special meeting of the USG Board of Regents has been called for May 2.  The main agenda items will be 2008 budget allocations to System institutions, including GCSU, and tuition increases.  System presidents have not been given a preview of the budget allocations and tuition increase recommendations.  However, President Leland predicted that the tuition increases would be double digit for GCSU due to the fiscal impact on institutional revenue of the new USG “fixed for four” tuition policy. 

Information about the 2008 budget allocation to GCSU, approved tuition increases, and the application of any new funding received will be reported to the University Senate and others at the beginning of the next academic year.

The President told Senators that the new System process for capital project funding requests has not been finalized.  The expectation is that this will occur sometime in June and that submissions will be due in early July.  She noted that GCSU’s campus masterplan documents some important space needs and focuses on the adaptive reuse of historic buildings to accommodate those needs. Capital requests will be consistent with this plan and will include requests for the complete renovation and adaptive reuse of several existing buildings on campus.

The President also responded to questions by some Senators as a follow-up to the recent faculty meeting, which provided members of the faculty with an overview of results from the faculty compensation study.  Stan McKnight, from the human resources consulting firm of McKnight Associates, Inc., provided this overview. 

President Leland noted that the objectives of this study were to 1) recommend an appropriate salary scale for faculty positions at GCSU based on comparisons with benchmark institutions, and to 2) recommend a manageable multi-year plan for bringing all GCSU faculty positions to at least the midpoint of that scale.  A copy of all information received from the consultants who conducted the study will soon be available in the Library and Instructional Technology Center (reserve desk) for review.  In addition, deans and department chairs have been asked to share information with school and departmental faculty.  Senators were invited to share their questions with department chairs or with their school representatives on the Faculty Compensation Study Advisory Committee.

President Leland provided the following responses to specific questions:

• The faculty compensation study does not deal with issues of merit.  This was not part of the design of the study, although issues related to merit are appropriate matters for additional study and possible action;
• A final report will be issued by the consultants sometime during the summer and any errors that may be in the initial report can be corrected at that time;
• The peer benchmarked salary scale produced by the consultants will need to be updated on a periodic basis in order to remain sensitive to the higher education market;
• Based on questions received from faculty, the university will compile a Q&A after it has resolved any technical questions with the consultants;
• The President plans to begin implementation by bringing all faculty positions to at least the minimum of the new salary scale by January 2008.   However, there will be another opportunity to review this matter and to resolve outstanding issues near the beginning of the Fall 2007 semester.