Faculty and Staff Roles and Rewards

After consultation with the Cabinet officers, all of whom serve on the College Council, President Thomforde has identified the following two areas in ongoing operations where strategic decisions are necessary: Program Mix and Quality; and Faculty/Staff Roles and Rewards. The task of the College Council will be to recommend answers to the four planning questions about these specific operations areas. In some ways, these are means to support the ends of the three special emphases. In other ways, strategic guidelines in these areas will be necessary to free the resources to accomplish the goals of the special emphasis areas.

Under the "Faculty/Staff Roles and Rewards" topic, the challenge is to lay out a strategic plan for dealing with the recruitment, evaluation, professional development, and compensation goals for employees. This topic will get at the inter-related issues of the quality of professional life at the College and cause us to look at employees' careers on the "appointment to retirement" continuum. Much of what needs doing in this area is already "in the pipeline" or stalled due to lack of time, energy, or money. For example, a comprehensive project to reclassify all non-faculty positions was completed in October 2001. The next step was to design a compensation strategy to match the changes in the classification system. In addition, the Review and Planning Committee of the faculty has been reviewing changes in the faculty evaluation system for two years, and the Director of Institutional Research has prepared a twenty-five page review of faculty compensation policies. Completing these activities as part of the strategic plan will be very beneficial for the institution.

From the Special Emphasis Self-Study Proposal