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NOTE:
This is the text of the memorandum sent by Chairman Kasio Mida of the COM-FSM Board of Regents, to Professor Resida Keller, Faculty/Staff Senate President, in response to her letter to the Board, addressing the salary freeze issue. (Click here to see scanned copy of this memorandum.)
March 29, 2012
MEMORANDUM:
TO : President, Faculty/Staff Senate
FROM : Chairman, Board of Regents
SUBJECT : Clarification on Salary Pay Freeze
Best wishes to you and your colleagues. The intent of this communication is to respond to your letter of February 17, 2012 regarding the recent decision of the Board of Regents to put a freeze on step increases for all employees of the college in the 2013 Budget and the steps the administration took to arrive at this decision. Please know the Board of Regents (BOR) carefully considered the February 17, 2012, letter you submitted on behalf of the Faculty/Staff Senate.
With regards to the first question on pay increase or step increases for all employees, the board approved the recommendation that there will be no step increases to take effect only for the budget year 2013. The reason was in response to the JEMCO Resolution for $700,000 dollars annual decrement for the college for the next four years. The plan was for the college to work closely with JEMCO and the FSM Government to reinstate the funding or seek alternative funding.
Your second question was about if and when, the salary freeze ends, will the salary of employees move up one step or two steps? The administration recommended that because $700k will be reduced from the 2013 budget, there would be no funding to address this shortfall. If the FSM government funds the $2.8 million, the Board will re-examine its decision on the freeze of step increases.
The college administration reported to the board in the January 2013 Board of Regents meeting that the 2013 budget followed the budget development process. Unfortunately, the college prioritization plan was not completed and PRC was also going through its transition to review the new budget. The 2013 Budget needed to be submitted to the FSM President's Office on January 15, 2012 as called for in the FSM budget timeline. The college recognizes its shortcoming with regards to the development of the 2013 budget. We have processes in place to ensure people are involved and people are encouraged to be engaged in the work of the committees. By all efforts, we must be sure to keep all faculty and staff aware, informed and involved in these important deliberations.
Last Friday, March 23, 2012, the college appeared before the JEMCO mid-year meeting here in Pohnpei to find ways to postpone the implementation of the JEMCO resolution and seek support to also lift the IDP freeze. As you may have aleady known, we were not successful in this effort. At this point in time, we are not able to determine whether the freeze will be for 2013 only.
COM-FSM is not alone in facing the serious financial challenges that all other colleges in the US and the region are facing. As we move forward, it will be clear to all of the subsequent funding challenges faced by the college.
Thank you for your inquiries and hope to continue to work closely with you on matters of great importance to the institution.
RELATED LINK:
CLICK here to see scanned copy of this memorandum.
CLICK here to read Professor Resida S. Samson's letter to the Board of Regents.
Date posted: April 23, 2012
NOTE:
This message was originally sent to Senate Faculty/Staff Representatives via email
Date: January 13, 2012 2:11:31 PM GMT+11:00
Subject: Updates and pressing issues
Dear Senate members:
As the beginning of the new year and the new semester kicks off, I would like to send you all wishes for a Happy and prosperous new year. To start off this semester, there are several pressing issues that we must address as members of senate. Let me provide an update for you all of what I shared with the faculty here at the National campus on Jan. 3rd and we can then move forward from there.
1. Regular Meeting time: There is a need to establish a meeting time when we can all meet (physically and electronically) to discuss and make decisions. Please send me two options of days/times when you are available to meet this semester so we can decide on the best time for meetings. If I can get your time availability by next week WEDNESDAY Jan 17th, I can be able to determine a time that will work for all of us.
2. The senate is tasked with the assignment to appoint 4 faculty/staff members to the college's Strategic Planning Working Group (SPWG) who will be working closely with the VPs, Campus directors, office directors, Committee chairs, IRPO and others from the FSM DOE in developing FSM Education Priorities and Resources. We need to come up with a process for selection and we need to recommend 4 members ASAP so that all this critical planning does not happen without the input of the faculty and staff.
3. Rafael Pulmano is putting together past minutes and treasurers' reports for the current senate so that we can all be informed of what the senate has done in the past. Once we decide on a meeting time, he can disseminate this information to all. We need to update and revise our by-laws--this will be one of the fist items of action for us so please read the by-laws and be thinking of how it can be improved.
4. Rafael and I will be working with the IT department to set up a wiki for the senate so that we can also all do on-line discussions of issues of importance. We will try to get it up and started within the next two weeks.
5. Some of the issues that have been brought up that you can share with members of your campuses and perhaps bring back feedback to the senate are as follows: Tuition waiver changes in policy (there was some concern that the changes occurred without many knowing about what these changes would entail and how it would directly affect employees and whether there can be some changes/exceptions to the policy), 67% completion rate that is part of new federal regulations for PELL and how this may affect teaching, Loanability amount from retirement funds to increase from the current 50% to 80%. If there are other issues that have been brought up at your campuses, please share with other members of the senate.
6. Our senate email is: senate@comfsm.fm ---let other members of your campuses know that they can email us all directly to voice their concerns and then we can meet for discussions and how to address such issues.
Right now I think the first two items are most pressing while the others will be on-going.
There has already been suggestions on who we should appoint to the SPWG: 1. ) Ross Perkins (who is the current Planning and Resource committee chairperson)--he has also communicated to me personally that he is willing and would like to be on this working group 2.) Kathy Hayes--Chairperson of the Curriculum and Assessment committee. Would nominations from each of us and an electronic vote be a workable process for us to apply to this situation? Then once we have selected people, we can inform them and ask if they are willing to serve and if yes, we can send our recommendation to the President and to the working group? Let me all know what you think.
Please respond to this email via the senate email so that we are all informed about input from everyone.
Thank you for your willingness to serve,
Resida Samson Keller
College of Micronesia-FSM
