To hear that a single year (2003) was used to determine raises in at least 1 of the colleges, and maybe two, is highly disturbing.  A general merit raise has not been given at USM since well before the end of the last century (1998 or 1999, right?), and to think that all the work done over the past 5 or so years was discarded as irrelevant or not important shows just how little the current crew of administrators at USM knows about running a university.  That this one-year process was selected by the COAL's Pood is even more troubling given that the publication of books is promoted so heavily in many fields in the liberal arts. 

My sense is that who ever Pood & Co wanted to give merit raises to from the COAL had better-than-average years in 2003, so it became favorable to select just one year (and that year in particular).  USM is a far cry from even a decent university at this point (never mind "worl' class").  Right now she's staring into the abyss and nothing's looking back at her.  Let's hope she finds her soul.