[Vision2020] UI Task Force Members Paid!!?

[Art Deco aka W. Fox]

All,

When I first heard that Gary Michaels, a moderately successful executive, had
been appointed interim UI president, I was encouraged.

I was wrong.  I should have looked closer.

Michaels made a number of knee-jerk decisions without regard to re-defining the
goals and mission of the UI in light of changed economic conditions.
Goals/Mission should precede budgets.  I hope the Committee now has discovered
this and we will all be pleasantly surprised.  Whatever happens will be painful;
however, if the process is not driven by clear measurable goals and standards it
will be pain without purpose.

Why is the University relying in this process on two people who really helped
Hoover to put us in this mess -- the Provost and the Budget Director?  I was
very disappointed that Michaels did not make a number of personnel changes to
promote looking at the UI situation afresh and without old
decisions/actions/personalities to defend.

Abolishing the UI Press instead of abolishing the person(s) responsible for its
situation was one of many bad decisions.  Properly managed, the UI Press could
have been both prestigious and profitable (with and entrepreneurial manager in
charge, in my opinion).  And all that mess with the Studio Arts, apparently part
of a thinly disguised vindictive plot against a ceramics artist.

As a two-time graduate, taxpayer, and donor, I sincerely hope that all will work
out for the best for the UI.  Perhaps Ron Force could keep us updated on the
various proposals as they come up for discussion.

Wayne

Art Deco  (Wayne Fox)
deco at moscow.com



----- Original Message ----- 
From: <hayfields at moscow.com>
To: "Ron Force" <rforce at moscow.com>; <vision2020 at moscow.com>
Sent: Tuesday, July 06, 2004 4:53 PM
Subject: RE: [Vision2020] UI Task Force Members Paid!!?


| Quoting Ron Force's response to 2020-
| Each Task Force member gets a $7,500 honorarium.  If taken directly (as
| > pay), it's subject to all the standard deductions, just like pay.  It can be
| > put into a discretionary operating fund to support professional work (like
| > travel to conferences, etc.); or, it can be used to buy released time from
| > the department. Academic year employees also get one month of summer salary.
| >
| So if each task force member (and by my count there are 23) gets a
| 7500 "honorarium" my calculator makes that $172,500.00
| And each professor gets one month of summer salary as well (or is it instead)?
|
| I have no idea how to calculate summer salary. It would be different for each
| professor based on base salary. It looks to me like 17 members are professors,
| and I have no idea how many of them are on 9 month(academic appointments) So
| do the professors on a 12 month appointent get more or less than the 7500?
|
| Anyway it sounds like we have just invested $200,000 for a Vision Task Force.
| Add that to the cost of the Pappas report...
|
| Why was it necessary to pay them at all? Would they not have been on the
| committee?  Couldn't the President just have appointed them and the
| departments would work around it- recognizing the signal honor of having a
| staff member on the committee?  Lots of UI committes are that way. Maybe that
| should have been a criteria for applying- that your dept could spare you.  I
| know there are lots of Emeriti professors who would probably have been willing
| to serve for free, and think of the institutional knowledge! I am just very
| curious about how this all works because I am comparing it with the Moscow
| School Board- no extra dollars as far as I know, but a ton of work. More I
| would venture to say than the Task Force.
| Perhaps given the fact that that amount would pay the salaries of quite a few
| custodians, secretaries or even a couple of professors our vision is still not
| quite where it needs to be.
|
| Heather Jordan
| UI Alum
| 2001
|
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