Faculty discusses retirement, exam issues

The discussions focus on changes being made in the policies.

By Katie Moritz

Published Feb. 12, 2009

The changing status of the MU faculty retirements fund came into light at the Feb. 12 Faculty Council meeting as Betsy Rodriguez, UM system vice president for human resources, spoke with the council.

"University employees have never had to make a contribution to the retirement plan," Rodriguez said. "That plan was funded solely through the university. So mandating an employee contribution is a big compensation change, and one that is very concerning to all employees."

Rodriguez is holding meetings with faculty to discuss new MU financial policies. Her goal is to help employees understand the necessity for the change, and to assure them that the pension plan benefits remain unchanged in this time of financial uncertainty.

Some members of the council were concerned the new retirement plan policy would become a "slippery slope," and would soon require no funding from MU, relying totally on faculty members for contribution.

Another subject of discussion was the possibility for a furlough for MU faculty, something Rodriguez called "an unpaid vacation."

"A furlough is unpaid time off, mandated by an employer," Rodriguez said. "It's essentially a temporary pay cut, although the employee does not work during that time. We are not currently doing furloughs, and would only do so in an extreme financial condition."

Professor and council member Bill Wiebold pointed out to Rodriguez the importance that faculty be offered first benefits from any extra money.

"Take back to the president that the first group that sees a saving from good investments is the faculty," Wiebold said. "That's what we need to hear you say."

Rodriguez pointed out the difference between salaries at MU and comparable universities around the country.

MU, compared to its peers, has lower spending on faculty benefits, so one would assume that salaries are higher. This is not the case, Rodriguez said.

"This is what's disturbing," Rodriguez said. "One of our goals was to get our faculty salaries to what they need to be."

Professor and council member David Trinklein discussed the topic of student exams.

Parents of students have complained that graduation ceremonies contradict with the exam schedule, Trinklein said. Also, MU has no backup plan if the school is closed due to inclement weather and exams are canceled.

Trinklein suggested changing reading day to the Thursday before exams began, thus starting exams on Friday and continuing them until Thursday of the following week, skipping the Saturday and Sunday in between. The last Friday of the exam week would be an "emergency day," in case MU was closed one day of exam week. The council will vote on this issue during their next meeting.

Trinklein also suggested changes to the student evaluation sheets given out at the end of semester.

Trinklein wishes for the "no opinion" choice to be deleted from the evaluations and replaced with "neutral." Also, the selection "no comment" was rarely chosen by students to evaluate their professors. Trinklein proposed to have it deleted.

Trinklein wants a committee formed to discuss and revise the form.

Professor and council Chairman Tom Phillips suggested that whatever revisions there are to be made, they should be made quickly.

"If we think this is important for promotion and tenure, we need to get this done this semester," Phillips said.

Revisions to student evaluations will be voted on during the next faculty council meeting.