College of Education
Budget Committee
May 20, 2016
MINUTES
Attendees: David Hough, Tami Arthaud, Kim Dubree, Janice Duncan, Steve Jones, Jill Martin, Cathy Pearman, Becky Swearingen, Jon Turner, Cathie Weir, Cindy Hail, Denise Cunningham
1. New Policy – Mileage Reimbursement for Practicum Oversight
The dean shared a draft policy first developed on February 29, 2016, and revised on 5/19/2016 after yesterday’s Leadership Council reviewed same and recommended changes. Leadership Council approved, but suggested increasing the maximum amount that would be allowed. A discussion followed and the following changes were suggested/decided:
– Instead of “when funds are available”, use $5,000 from the Program Support Fund to establish a budget line to support this new policy.
– Requests should be made directly to the dean who will ensure that the guidelines are met.
Dean Hough will re-draft the policy and email it to the BC for another round of review.
2. Academic Affairs Budget Committee Report
– Faculty and staff will receive a 2% across the board raise
– Money will be set aside for staff equity.
– $900,000 will be set aside for new faculty positions based on program growth. The dean passed out information that stated the guidelines. Our college will be allotted $134,000. The money could be used to fill two faculty positions and can only be used for new faculty positions from departments that have shown growth. The BC agreed that the new early childhood faculty position that was approved earlier this year should be one of the positions to be funded. Department heads were asked to submit Requests for Positions, per the COE Strategic Hiring Plan by July 1, 2016. The Faculty Advisory Council and Leadership Council may need to meet this summer to review them and make recommendations to the dean, so search committees could be formed and ready to start in the fall. The second position must be from an area that has shown growth.
3. Topics to Discuss for the Fall
The dean asked everyone to start thinking about the following to discuss in the fall:
– The BC might want to consider not filling positions, so the money could be used for faculty equity adjustments.
– We try to hire tenure track faculty, but at times hire clinical faculty for a year. Most times the person does a wonderful job and they are asked to continue in the position rather than post a tenure track faculty position. How can we increase tenure-track positions when requests continue to be made for instructors?
4. New Overtime Law
Per President Obama, starting in December, exempt employees that make $47,000 or less will be entitled to overtime pay if they work over 40 hours per week. This will undoubted be discussed at various University levels, but suggestions from the BC would be helpful. Dean Hough will review exempt employee pay ranges in COE to determine how many fall into this category. The group suggested continual monitoring of staff be reinforced to verify that no one is working more than 8 hours per day and 40 hours per week without prior permission from their supervisor. The practice of offering “comp time” was discussed, and it was strongly stated that this should not be or become a practice, as our HR personnel have advised against it. Also, exempt staff may need to complete time sheets to show the hours worked.
The meeting concluded with the dean asking if members would be willing to meet this summer if needed. Most would be able to attend.
Submitted by Sharon Lopinot