A&S Planning and Budget Commmittee Minutes April 15 1999

Art's & Sciences Planning and Budget Committee Minutes of 4/15/99 Meeting

    Members attending:
  • George Barnes
  • Stephen Edgell
  • Robert Kimball
  • Nathan Schwartz (Chair)
  • Wiley Williams

The minutes of the meeting of 4/8/99 were discussed at length and approved with two changes.

The next meeting was set for Tuesday, April 20, from 1:00 to 2:00 in a place to be announced, with another meeting set for Thursday, April 22, also from 1:00 to 2:00 in a place to be announced. The first meeting was called to discuss the important issue of advising the Dean on the allocation of the 1% salary pool that the College Bylaws call for her to withhold and distribute to correct salary inequities, compensate for inadequately rewarded superior performance, and/or provide additional funding for departments whose missions have changed. The second meeting was called to continue work on the Committee's budget report.

The Committee discussed a memo concerning further problems with the University's procedure for identifying possible gender inequities from Edgell to the Dean that was copied to the Committee. The memo stated: That there are many problems with the regression model that are not included in the Committee's resolution. The biggest one is that the model assumes that gender bias could not have been a factor in promotions. That is, it assumes that everyone is at the correct rank given their merit. The model assumes that the only way gender bias could occur is through bias in salary within a given rank. Obviously, that is totally ridiculous. If there were gender bias operating, promotion decisions would be the one place where it most easily could occur and where it would have the largest effect.

The Committee then discussed a memo from Dr. John Richardson. He states that he noticed that the Committee is considering recommending lab fees for departments such as Chemistry and Biology. He reported that when he was Chair of Chemistry two years ago, he proposed such a fee to the Provost. He notes that it has the support of an outside review Committee and the Dean. However, the Provost turned down the fee, citing among other reasons that there had recently been an increase in tuition.

The time for the meeting having expired, the meeting was adjourned.

Respectfully submitted,

Steve Edgell

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