7/23/2010: One discussion at the recent Provost’s retreat was on building trust between the administration and the faculty. Or so we heard, on the hush-hush from a visibly nervous admin type, as he looked around the room to see if the boss was listening. The Provost won’t tell the faculty much about what happens at these retreats, of course. Did you even know they were having one? Did they ask for your input on UO problems? Get a clue, people.
Speaking of transparency, good article by Audrey Williams June in the Chronicle about raising faculty salaries at Minot State:
… For institutions looking to overhaul compensation, support from the very top is key, says Ms. Fedje. Others involved in the Minot State effort strongly agree. “I think the president’s buy-in with this task force has really funnelled through the university,” says Nathan Anderson, a task-force member who builds and manages databases for the College of Education and Health Sciences. “When we first started, I think there were a lot of unknowns. But I think people have bought into what we’re doing at this point.”
A Visible Process
One reason is openness. The group has widely circulated documents about its work, held open forums, and met with the faculty and staff senates to take questions and concerns. In addition, salary-notification letters detail how a person’s pay was calculated and puts it up against the market rate, Mr. Matthews says.
“The transparency has to be there, or otherwise people aren’t going to trust what’s going on at all,” Ms. Fedje says.
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