Filling in for Provost John Wiencek, Vice Provost for Faculty Jeanne Stevenson discussed market-based compensation at Tuesday’s Faculty Senate meeting.
She affirmed the University of Idaho is on course for a mid-year change in compensation and discussed how the changes in compensation will affect teaching assistants.
The Faculty Senate leadership met with the Dean of Graduate Studies Jerry McMurtry. Faculty Senate Chair Patrick Hrdlicka noted the overall process for developing and implementing a plan for market-based compensation is a complex task.
According to Hrdlicka, McMurtry expected to spend a month on developing the plan but
is now in his fifth month of planning. McMurtry previously set a deadline for Dec. 1, and Hrdlicka said McMurtry is working hard to fulfill that deadline.
According to Faculty Senate leadership, McMurtry is currently working toward what implementation will look like for all of the colleges individually and is receiving feedback from the deans.
Jim Craig, Deputy General Counsel, spoke on new revisions to the proposed changes to the UI student disciplinary process. Craig said minor changes occurred since the senate gave suggestions at the Sept. 26 meeting. Two of these changes added a section of confidentiality and a defined what an investigator is. The senate ultimately voted to approve these amendments.
Questions were also raised by Faculty Sen. Allan Caplan from agricultural and life sciences, regarding a student’s access to a translator during the disciplinary process, given they don’t speak English or feel as if their verbal skills are not up to par. Craig responded by saying translators will be provided on a case by case basis, meaning the university does not have to provide a translator unless they deem necessary.
Senators brought up concerns about the use of a hearing officer in certain cases. Craig clarified that hearing officers are given solely by the power of the administrator but people can request and make an argument for why a hearing officer should be utilized in any given case. According to Craig, the absence of a hearing officer will not be ground for an appeal in any case. Craig noted the intention is to revisit the code every couple years and make additional changes when necessary.
The senate voted unanimously to establish the new Student Conduct Board. This will merge the Student Appeals Committee and Student Disciplinary Review Board to create the new board.
Wesley Matthews, executive director for human resources, presented a brief overview of the new staff compensation model that HR has been working on. According to Matthews, the university’s main goal of implementing this compensation model will be to get total staff salaries to total the total market rate.
He also said that the goal for individuals is to have more of a focus on experience, meaning if someone is more experienced they will in general be paid above average and someone with less experience may be paid below average.
In the last year, the university worked to find the average market salary and found UI compensation is just over $10 million off. The total salaries of UI employees were about $10 million below market average. The market average, according to Matthews, is 84.5 compared to UI’s average of 73.8.
After finding the difference in in the average market value, and the UI salary, Matthews developed an equity model along with his colleagues. The model assigns a new rule to salaries, showing that any position should not be paid less than 80 percent of the market average. Matthews noted that currently, the staffer most behind the market average is paid 55 percent below for their position.
Matthews said that the mid-year adjustments will only affect those who are behind the average market salary for their position. Matthews also clarified that merit pay will not affect the mid-year adjustment.
Elizabeth Marshall can be reached at [email protected]