Excellent Letter in HA! (11/01) - USM Forum -- Message Board

Date: Nov 1, 2005

Excellent Letter in HA! (11/01)

Date: Nov 1, 2005

Well written! So it appears that administrators get the pork fat and the hard working enablers get the fuzzy end of the lolly pop.

Date: Nov 1, 2005

Dr. Mitch Berman is very articulate. What most readers of his letter to the HA will not realize is that he was a college-level administrator until quite recently. The faculty leadership (Senate, the Councils, AAUP) at USM is heavily represented by ex-administrators, including provosts, deans, associate deans, program directors, department chairs. Is this common at other universities or is it particularly revealing about the poor leadership at the top of USM?

Date: Nov 1, 2005

This letter is another good example why faculty members should join and support the local AAUP chapter which works for the overall benefit of the university and for the faculty as a whole. I can tell you from personal experience elsewhere that it will be among the best bucks you ever spent.

Date: Nov 1, 2005

Administrators deserve raises too. I didn't get one but would have been happy to receive one. I know that we can do a better job for our faculty and staff in our division if our administrators are pleased with our compensation.

It's easier for faculty to make lateral moves to other institutions than it is for us in administration. 160 K is not a lot of money. I know that if we could increase the teaching loads of numerous members of our faculty we would have more than enough money to increase salaries of administrators, faculty, and staff.

Faculty members have better hours, do less work than we admins, and have much more vacation time. Just look at the number of administrators that have gone back to be faculty because, in the long and short run, faculty members have the best deal.

Let's all do our part to help improve everybody's situation in relation to salaries. We are also faced with the after-Katrina syndrone. It looks as if there will be many unmet needs in Mississippi for years to come. If all of us become more productive, produce more, and work together we wil all reap better benefits.

Remember, I was not one of the selected to get a part of the 160 K. There are a lot of other adminsitrators that wonder WHY they were not incluced. I hear many comments from admins that indicate that they are disappointed that they were slighted.

A faculty member once told me that he hoped that his department chair got a big raise. He believed that the larger the raise for the administrator....the larger the raise would be for him. He swore that this had always worked to his advantage.

Date: Nov 1, 2005

I'll Take It Too wrote:

I know that we can do a better job for our faculty and staff in our division if our administrators are pleased with our compensation . . . Faculty members have better hours, do less work than we admins, and have much more vacation time . . . A faculty member once told me that he hoped that his department chair got a big raise. He believed that the larger the raise for the administrator....the larger the raise would be for him.

There's lots of screwed up logic in this post.

Date: Nov 1, 2005

Pino,
Get real, that is the way it is ..if you are an admina you always can hope for the best. But in reality, if the adim does well with salaries ....so does the facuty and stafff. Research It.

Date: Nov 1, 2005

Reality wrote:

But in reality, if the adim does well with salaries ....so does the facuty and stafff.

Mayabe at Southern Miss, my friend, but not in the big leagues.

Date: Nov 1, 2005

Reality wrote:

if the adim does well with salaries ....so does the facuty and stafff.

Is that why the faculty received such hugh salary increases this year? Because the administration did well with salaries? You hypothesis is rejected even for USM.

Date: Nov 1, 2005

Come now, you rich ones, weep and howl for your miseries that are coming upon you.

Your riches are corrupted, and your garments are moth-eaten.

Your gold and your silver are rusted; and their rust shall be for a testimony against you, and shall eat your flesh as fire.

You have laid up your treasure in the last days.

Look! the hire of the laborers who worked your fields, which you kept back by fraud, cries out: and the cries of them that reaped have entered into the ears of the Lord of Heaven's armies.

You have lived delicately on the earth, and taken your pleasure; ye have nourished your hearts in a day of slaughter.

Date: Nov 1, 2005

Just do your research. The higher salary and benefits of administrators yield higher faculty and staff salaries. Just look at it. It is a fact.

Date: Nov 1, 2005

Reality wrote:

if the adim does well with salaries ....so does the facuty and stafff. Research It.

Reality, you're way out of touch with the reality of academics at good schools. Department chairs often recommend higher salaries for their productive faculty members than they themselves receive.

Date: Nov 1, 2005

I"ll Take It Too wrote:

Just do your research. The higher salary and benefits of administrators yield higher faculty and staff salaries. Just look at it. It is a fact.

What you say is true only by local standards in an environment where deans and other higher level administrators are viewed as kings and queens, chairs are viewed as princes, and the faculty is viewed as a servants.

Date: Nov 1, 2005

I"ll Take It Too wrote:

Just do your research. The higher salary and benefits of administrators yield higher faculty and staff salaries. Just look at it. It is a fact.

Let's do that research right now. Southern Miss administrators received gigantic raises. If what you say is correct, it follows that the faculty received gigantic raises. Did that happen? Nuff said.

Date: Nov 1, 2005

Pino guy or gal,
Do some research....or a little broader scale than USM...then get back to us.

Date: Nov 1, 2005

I"ll Take It Too wrote:

The higher salary and benefits of administrators .....

Ah, yes, those benefits. One "benefit" I see is an invitation to the annual Faculty Appreciation Day. No thanks, I'll take the higher salary.

Date: Nov 1, 2005

I'll Take It Too wrote:

Administrators deserve raises too. I didn't get one but would have been happy to receive one. I know that we can do a better job for our faculty and staff in our division if our administrators are pleased with our compensation. It's easier for faculty to make lateral moves to other institutions than it is for us in administration. 160 K is not a lot of money. I know that if we could increase the teaching loads of numerous members of our faculty we would have more than enough money to increase salaries of administrators, faculty, and staff. Faculty members have better hours, do less work than we admins, and have much more vacation time. Just look at the number of administrators that have gone back to be faculty because, in the long and short run, faculty members have the best deal. Let's all do our part to help improve everybody's situation in relation to salaries. We are also faced with the after-Katrina syndrone. It looks as if there will be many unmet needs in Mississippi for years to come. If all of us become more productive, produce more, and work together we wil all reap better benefits. Remember, I was not one of the selected to get a part of the 160 K. There are a lot of other adminsitrators that wonder WHY they were not incluced. I hear many comments from admins that indicate that they are disappointed that they were slighted. A faculty member once told me that he hoped that his department chair got a big raise. He believed that the larger the raise for the administrator....the larger the raise would be for him. He swore that this had always worked to his advantage.

Holy Cow! My favorite part is that if we increased teaching loads, then we have enough for everyone to get raises. Why is having more students better for students? If all of use become more productive we'd reap benefits? Holy Cow again! I can't tell you how many here in my college (CoAL) have worked our individual and collective a$$e$ off for years only to find that we lose ground on benefits and in relation to faculty at other institutions year after year! How can this person, one the one hand, indicate that he/she could do better for faculty if better compensated, yet imply that faculty here at USM need heavier teaching loads are need to be more productive?

This last year, for which those few administrators received extraordinary raises that most faculty never see in their entire lifetimes (by percentage or by actual dollars), we were on probation with SACS, remained in the 4th tier, experienced flat enrollments, had lower average ACT scores compared with UM and MSU, have fewer out-of-state students that UM or MSU, and were told to prepare for budget cuts of 5%. Holy Cow! What extraordinary things did those administrators accomplish that warranted those extraordinary raises?

If you examine the powerpoint presentation that Dr. Thames gave to Faculty Senate, you'll see that his only justification was that his administrators don't make what their counterparts do at UM and MSU. But he opened his presentation by stating that the raises were based on merit. Dr. Thames can't seem to get his story straight, but it's pretty obvious what the administrators accomplished!

1. SACS probation

2. flat enrollment

3. low ACTs

4. low percentage of out-of-state students

5. remaining in 4th tier

Holy Cow!

Amy Young

Date: Nov 1, 2005

Well if can get Miss Amy to respond, maybe this board has a chance of being revived. All of you researchers, reseach IT, do higher adm. salaries at OTHER instutions of Higher Learning bring higher salaries of for faculty and staff for those institutiions?

Do our research.....plan a strategy for improvement. For all admins and faculty, and staff.

Date: Nov 1, 2005

I'll Take It Too wrote:

I know that we can do a better job for our faculty and staff in our division if our administrators are pleased with our compensation.

You must be the administrator my mother warned me about.

Date: Nov 1, 2005

Despite adhering to the rising tide theory myself, I doubt that I'll take it too is really a USM administrator. Just a little too provocative for this suspicious mind.

Date: Nov 1, 2005

I'll Take It Too wrote:

Well if can get Miss Amy to respond, maybe this board has a chance of being revived. All of you researchers, reseach IT, do higher adm. salaries at OTHER instutions of Higher Learning bring higher salaries of for faculty and staff for those institutiions? Do our research.....plan a strategy for improvement. For all admins and faculty, and staff.

"I'll Take it Too", you must not know dat we use de plantation management system here. Only de peoples in de big house get to make decisions. De forman tells us fieldhands bout it later. We now told der wil be budget cuts cause of de hurricane damage. I don'ts think de people in de big house will give back dat money, no.

Date: Nov 1, 2005

i watched NBC's national news tonight and saw people on the coast sleeping in tents today while it rained, and i'm supposed to be worried about "my" salary. i'm supposed to "reseach" [sic] something about administrative salaries and faculty salaries!? don't think so. a colleague of mine got laid off at Xavier yesterday. why do some dignify "i''ll take it too's" responses by answering them?

Date: Nov 1, 2005

Xavier is not an institution this area can afford to lose. I was very concerned when I saw the article about layoffs in the online T-P.
For those who don't know, Xavier is a predominantly black, Catholic private college in New Orleans that trains a lot of pre-med, pre-pharmacy, etc., and sends its students on to good grad schools.

Date: Nov 1, 2005

I'll Take It Too wrote:

Administrators deserve raises too. I didn't get one but would have been happy to receive one. I know that we can do a better job for our faculty and staff in our division if our administrators are pleased with our compensation. It's easier for faculty to make lateral moves to other institutions than it is for us in administration. 160 K is not a lot of money. I know that if we could increase the teaching loads of numerous members of our faculty we would have more than enough money to increase salaries of administrators, faculty, and staff. Faculty members have better hours, do less work than we admins, and have much more vacation time. Just look at the number of administrators that have gone back to be faculty because, in the long and short run, faculty members have the best deal. Let's all do our part to help improve everybody's situation in relation to salaries. We are also faced with the after-Katrina syndrone. It looks as if there will be many unmet needs in Mississippi for years to come. If all of us become more productive, produce more, and work together we wil all reap better benefits. Remember, I was not one of the selected to get a part of the 160 K. There are a lot of other adminsitrators that wonder WHY they were not incluced. I hear many comments from admins that indicate that they are disappointed that they were slighted. A faculty member once told me that he hoped that his department chair got a big raise. He believed that the larger the raise for the administrator....the larger the raise would be for him. He swore that this had always worked to his advantage.

This is a very bizarre post, and my guess (hope) is that it was not written by someone with administrative obligations at USM.

1. One of the most disappointing aspects of the current administration is that they have failed to produce a comprehensive, long term plan to bring faculty AND staff compensation in line with peer institutions.

2. Raising a few administrative salaries will increase faculty salaries? That's just plain crazy. Faculty salaries across institutions can be expected to be modestly correlated with staff and administrative salaries for a variety of reasons, but this effect is not causal. There is no trickle down effect here, because the admins' money is not dispersed within the faculty.

3. Making a general statement that administrators do more work than faculty is pretty insulting to faculty. Any administrator who would say this publicly deserves a good lashing.

4. Faculty should become more productive? As an accreditation site visitor for many, many institutions over the years, I can tell you that, as a whole, this faculty is overworked and underpaid compared to peer institutions. There is no more blood to be gotten from that stone. Teach more? No problem. But then forget helping with the unusually heavy service demands here, as well as grant writing and scholarship.

5. Admins here have not gone back to faculty for the great deal offered. They have been burned out, forced out, or just become disgusted with the current situation at USM and step down.

Date: Nov 1, 2005

for the past 2 or 3 administrations, there has been no long term plan to bring staff and faculty salaries in line with those of comparable institutions. this is due in great part to the legislature's inability to deal with the issue.

Date: Nov 2, 2005

It has always been my suspicion that SFT got the job for two reasons--and neither of them has to do with a north Mississippi conspiracy: (1) his candidacy was pushed hard by his local political/economic/athletic cronies and (2) the board, completely ignorant of what a university is supposed to be, was somehow convinced either by SFT himself, by the talk of those mentioned in item 1, or probably by both that he was the only one who could deal with the budgetary problems at USM. Anyone who looked closely at the budget back when Fleming left or when Lucas was interim could see that we were in terrible financial shape. Well, the laugh is on them. Even before the hurricane, things had gone from bad to worse and that includes the horrible mess with the Foundation and the capital campaign.

One other point--I have always maintained that even in hard times there was a sense among a majority of the faculty that we were doing good work--that we were almost like family--that we were in this together. The comaraderie and the sense of purpose made it easier to deal with the lower salaries. Now.....? 'Nuf said.

Date: Nov 2, 2005

*** wrote:

for the past 2 or 3 administrations, there has been no long term plan to bring staff and faculty salaries in line with those of comparable institutions. this is due in great part to the legislature's inability to deal with the issue.

I just site visited an institution in a state that has taken even more severe budget cuts to higher ed than we have. At the top of their strategic plan is faculty and staff. They do have a plan for compensation increases, and raises have been regular. Teaching loads and support are very reasonable, and the faculty are productive. Yes, we have had legislative challenges, and previous administrations have dropped the ball on planning. For these reasons, this should have been at the top of our strategic plan, but, once again, the ball was dropped.

Date: Nov 2, 2005

Speaking of strategic plans, did anyone see the membership of the ADP's committee on rebuilding the Pine Belt. What a list! Not to disparage some of the very fine people in that group (like Warren Hood), it is inordinately heavy on SFT cronies.

Date: Nov 2, 2005

Is Angie Dvorak still head of the ADP? If so, what else would one expect?

Date: Nov 2, 2005

LVN wrote:

Xavier is not an institution this area can afford to lose. I was very concerned when I saw the article about layoffs in the online T-P.
For those who don't know, Xavier is a predominantly black, Catholic private college in New Orleans that trains a lot of pre-med, pre-pharmacy, etc., and sends its students on to good grad schools.

I hear that Dillard University is also laying off all non-tenure track faculty (which they rely *heavily* on to do their teaching). This is just plain awful...for New Orleans, for their students, and for higher ed, in general.

Truth