[Vision2020] UI Task Force Members Paid!!?

Thu Jul 8 12:21:28 PDT 2004

Ron Force writes:

>There are no Deans or Directors on the Task Force-- just faculty, staff &
>students.

A quick look at the Task Force website

http://www.vrt.uidaho.edu/default.aspx?pid=56355

suggests otherwise

Members include:

Francisco Salinas, Director of Multicultural Affairs
Dan Schoenberg,  Director of Auxiliary Services
Cherryl Sodorff, Director, Facilities--Fiscal and Administrative Services
Jean Teasdale, Director, Adminstrative Services and Fiscal Operations, 
College of Engineering
Margrit von Braun, Professor and Associate Dean of the Graduate School

By my count, the Task Force includes 17 professors, including several 
department chairs, 2 students (one grad, one undergrad), and six staff 
members--five exempt, including four directors and the University Registrar, 
and one lone classified staff member.

Interestingly, 11 of the 17 professors are men.

Who chose the Task Force's members?

Inquiringly,

Melynda Huskey

>From: "Ron Force" <rforce at moscow.com>
>To: <hayfields at clarkston.com>, <vision2020 at moscow.com>
>Subject: RE: [Vision2020] UI Task Force Members Paid!!?
>Date: Thu, 8 Jul 2004 09:48:37 -0700
>
>There are no Deans or Directors on the Task Force-- just faculty, staff &
>students.
>
>**********************************************
>Ron Force          Moscow ID USA
>rforce at moscow.com
>**********************************************
>
>-----Original Message-----
>From: hayfields at clarkston.com [mailto:hayfields at clarkston.com]
>Sent: Thursday, July 08, 2004 8:06 AM
>To: Ron Force; vision2020 at moscow.com
>Subject: RE: [Vision2020] UI Task Force Members Paid!!?
>
>
>While I certainly support the mission of the task force, I am having a
>little
>more trouble swallowing the explanation of why they should be paid, in
>addition to their regular salaries.
>First of all we all make choices, choices about how we spend our time and
>our
>money.
>All Deans and directors are expected to attend committee meetings as a part
>of
>their jobs.  So they definitely shouldn't get paid.  Sometimes you work 
>more
>than 80 hours a week and that is just the way it works out. That is why 
>they
>get paid more.  Whether you COULD have gotten a summer job instead of
>serving
>on the task force is not really to the point.
>Further, each task force member has the OPTION of taking the money as
>income,
>choosing not to reimburse departments if they want. And if the expectation
>is
>that the department will be reimbursed for your time, why give the money to
>the members and not just devote it to the departments. Give the students
>vouchers for tuition and fees.
>Further can the Deans who are on the committee take part in a decision to
>provide themselves with a pecuniary benefit for serving on the committee?
>They
>certainly implied that they did.
>
>It seems to me that as many of the members are "high powered individuals" 
>it
>should not take them 500 hours to decide what the values and vision of the
>University ought to be. Most of them should have been thinking about this
>before.
>Here in a nutshell is my concern, a group of hand picked individuals - is
>being paid a not insignificant sum (at least to us low-powered individuals)
>to
>establish a set of "visions and values".  This University belongs to the
>state, not the workers here.  So why aren't any members from the state at
>large on the committee?  Why not Shirley Ringo, or Tom Trail? How about
>someone unaffiliated with the U? The State Board of Education and the state
>should tell us what our values and vision should be, our discussion should
>be
>about how to implement it. The major work for the task force has already
>been
>completed by the committees already appointed by previous administrations_
>i.e. what are our inconsistencies, weak areas, areas of budgetary concern,
>areas of financial mismanagement etc... not to mention the money that has
>already been expended on consultants- Pappas, Prince etc...  At this point
>they should be coming up with solutions.
>
>A good example would be to release to the campus the entire Pappas report
>and
>the solutions that will be implemented.  We spent good money to get that
>report and we ought to be announcing the changes in policies and procedures
>section by section to fix the problems.
>
>
>  **********************************************
>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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