On Summer Contract Pay

SUMMER PAY OPTIONS

Date Posted: January 23, 2013

The table below shows (4) different scenarios concerning faculty summer pay that are currently being considered by a working group assigned to look into this matter.

The senate is soliciting feedback from the faculty concerning these scenarios for submission back to the working group as soon as possible.  The group is planning to meet Wednesday next week to discuss comments and suggestions.

Please post your comments below, email your senate, or contact your faculty representatives asap.

PRESIDENT DAISY'S RESPONSE TO FACULTY'S CONCERN REGARDING SUMMER CONTRACT PAY FOR 2012

Date Posted: May 16, 2012

The college will implement for this summer only, the same incentive provided last summer, a 20% increase above the current compensation schedule.

COM-FSM President Joseph M. Daisy communicated this information to the working group that was tasked by the Senate's Faculty Subcommittee to meet with him last April 27, 2012 in order to discuss the Summer contract pay.  The group was composed of Senate President Resida Keller, Dr. Richard Womack, and Prof. Dana Lee Ling and Rafael Pulmano.

In his email message, the president said he was pleased to have met with the group several weeks ago and to learn of the concerns related to the summer pay for faculty. He expressed appreciation for the perspective that they provided and also the professional and respectful tone exhibited throughout the discussion.

According to the president, as this issue will likely take many more minds to appropriately address, he encourages representatives from the faculty to engage in further discussions and plans for consideration to permanently resolve the summer pay issue for faculty.

He said that, as promised, he had looked into the options available now, that a 20% increase at this time is merely a temporary solution, and that he looks forward to a timely resolution of concerns related to the summer compensation for faculty.

FACULTY MEETING WITH PRESIDENT DAISY TO DISCUSS SALARY FREEZE AND SUMMER CONTRACT PAY

Date Posted: April 30, 2012

In behalf of the faculty senate, Prof. Richard Womack, Dana Lee Ling, Resida Keller and Rafael Pulmano, met with President Joseph M. Daisy at his office on April 27, 2012 at 3:00 PM.  The president welcomed the group, and Dr. Womack began by providing background information about the salary situation at COM-FSM from long before the recent job audit up to the present.

President Daisy listened intently, asked questions, thanking the group for sharing this information while at the same time giving assurance that he'd been doing his homework and is looking at possible options.

After learning that some faculty had to teach extra classes and also teach during Summer to cope with the high cost of living in the FSM, the president expressed that faculty shouldn't be working on extra load to make a living. The president wants to have salary options with costs presented to him. He is open to ideas, he "gets" that the faculty are underpaid and the ramifications for recruiting and retaining qualified faculty.

The president indicated he realized full-well the recruitment and retention issues are serious, as well as a declining sense of  "good morale". Womack noted that with having to maintain overloads etc...to make ends meet--working paycheck to paycheck when announcements like---the accreditation course shall be put in one's evaluation and the work many are doing is NOT put in one's "permanent file"--it rubs folks--the wrong way. Faculty are perhaps becoming too sensitive---but for a reason.

Lee Ling suggested that the college avoid going back through another salary study and use the current tracks which are four percent per step, one percent per substep, and simply extend the track beyond step 20.  That would not incur any immediate cost.  He also suggested "cutting off" the bottom of the track and hiring in "higher" on a track to make salaries more competitive.  Womack argued that the cut-off should result in a salary on par with Marshall islands.

The president noted that the step increase freeze would have to remain in place for now. He noted that the FSM Congress is looking to appropriate $700,000 to assist the college and that it would not look appropriate if the college received the 700K and then turned around and used it to pay for step increases. Womack noted that the faculty had expressed a willingness to make a one year sacrifice, but that an end date to the step freeze was desired. Recruitment and retention are already problematic, the freeze only exacerbates the problem.

On Summer contract pay and committee work, the president noted that for Fall and Spring, regular full-time faculty are being paid regular pay spread over 12 months, while peforming various tasks in addition to actual teaching - serving on committees, advising students, etc. During Summer, full-time faculty sign special contract with job basically confined to teaching only.

The president expressed an interest in exploring whether summer pay could simply be regular term pay. This would obviously be for the future. He presented a number of possible scenarios under consideration, and asked the faculty to also come up with options of their own for management's consideration. The president wants committee work to continue during the summer, and suggested maybe a stipend for non-teaching faculty who have committee work during the summer.

Lee Ling noted that all faculty are currently part-time in the summer and part-time faculty do not have committee duties at the college, thus the stipend might be due to all faculty who serve during the summer.

The president said he would ask Academic Program Director Karen Simeon and Comptroller Danny Dumantay to put numbers on his desk to find out as to what a 20% incentive would cost. He requested that he be given until Monday (April 30, 2012) to look into the financial implications of a similar increase in summer pay given last year, but expressed his desire for a continuing dialogue.