BOS/FAC Report for August 24, 2007

Submitted by Mary Sue Ply

Board Actions Pertinent to SLU

  1. Approved Promotions in Rank and Recommendations for Tenure.
  2. Approved 2007/2008 Operating Budget, including faculty pay plans.
  3. Approved Personnel Actions and Summer School Appointments.
  4. Approved SLU’s request for approval to establish the Center for Nursing Research in Education and Practice.
  5. Approved SLU’s request for approval of a letter of intent for a Bachelor of Science degree program in Engineering and Technology.
  6. Approved SLU’s request for authorization to proceed with issuing an RFP to privately design, finance, construct, furnish, own, and operate a full-service hotel on property owned by the university (between Alumni Center and University Center). Joined by community and student leaders, Dr. Moffett explained that this hotel would fill Hammond’s need for a high-quality, full-service hotel with at least 150 rooms as well as meeting rooms adequate for small conventions. Hammond has recently failed in bids to hold such small conventions; thus, the hotel would be an economic boon to the city. The hotel would also be used to house special guests of the university as well as candidates for university positions during the interview process. While privately owned and operated, the hotel would nonetheless generate revenue for the university. Another potential benefit would be new programs in hospitality and tourism management. The RFP will be issued on September 8, with bids due in November and final plans due in March 2008.

Additional Board Actions

  1. Approved the System office’s request for approval of Fiscal Year 2008/2009 Capital Outlay Budget Request and Institutions’ Five-Year Capital Outlay Plans. Part of the discussion focused on the time-consuming process of getting projects accepted and funded and finally built—on average, 54 months. The cost of projects has risen drastically in recent years, such that previously approved projects have to be redone to account for the increases and to stay within the state’s cap of $200/sq.ft.
  2. Discussed the monies available for Service Learning projects on system campuses. Last year over $644,000 was granted to 31 different projects, involving 3058 college participants, 261faculty/staff members, 122 youth volunteers, 95 community partners, and over 140,000 volunteer hours. At present, $500,000 is available for such projects.

FAC Report

Most of the meeting was devoted to campus reports, particularly about raise plans. Grambling would receive raises based on an across-the-board amount and then additional amounts tied to merit and equity, so as to raise salaries to SREB (Southern Regional Educational Board) averages. McNeese received raises that, in aggregate, represented a 12.7% increase, based on across-the-board, merit, and adjustments to match SREB averages in rank and discipline. McNeese still has buildings “off-line” because of Hurricane Rita. At Northwestern State, a committee of faculty was involved in formulating the raise plan, which included an across-the-board sum as well as funds for department heads and deans to disburse according to merit. The average was 12%, with assistant professors averaging 13%, associate professors 10%, and full professors 10%. [These relatively larger raises, by percentage, than those at SLU reflect how far away these schools were from SREB averages. The more consistent raises at SLU have kept faculty closer to SREB averages.] The University of Louisiana at Monroe faculty received $1500 across the board, and then each person was assigned to a category of merit: $2000, $1500, $1000.

Penny Ferguson of the Louisiana Chapter of AFT presented information on the Board of Regents’ response to a 2006 concurrent resolution on creating a Paid Time Off leave plan and restricting the current sick leave plan. Current faculty might be grandfathered into the present sick leave plan, which allows faculty and unclassified staff to accrue an unlimited amount of sick leave. The proposed plan would allow each university to define how the PTO could be used as well as to determine what limits would be placed on how and for how long Extended Sick Leave would be allocated, and on how much sick leave could be accrued. The plan would also limit to 300 hours (37.5 days) the amount of sick leave for which a retiring/resigning faculty member could be reimbursed—or could apply toward earned service time for retirement compensation. The language in both the resolution and the Regents’ analysis is ambiguous about whether each of the four system management boards would have to implement this alternative leave plan, or could vote to maintain the current sick leave plan. The Board of Regents has essentially endorsed the plan. However, the earliest it could be reintroduced in the legislature would be the 2009 session.