MERITS OF PAY: ADMINISTRATION EXPLAINS REGENT REVISION OF PLAN

About 100 faculty members at Southeast Missouri State University expressed concern Wednesday about last month's decision by the Board of Regents to adopt a merit pay plan that excludes across-the-board pay hikes.

In a one-hour meeting Wednesday afternoon with university President Kala Stroup, faculty members questioned the board's decision.

The meeting was held in the Ballroom of the University Center. Stroup met with faculty members in an effort to clarify the board's action.

A merit pay plan recommended earlier this year by the Faculty Senate and endorsed by the administration would have awarded Southeast's approximately 400 faculty members an across-the-board pay raise of at least 3 percent annually for each of the next three years, beginning in the 1993 fiscal year.

The plan would have allowed the general merit pay to be withheld from a faculty member who did not warrant the increase, but only with the agreement of two-thirds of the full-time faculty of the affected department and the concurrence of the department chairperson and dean.

But university officials had said they expected that virtually all of Southeast's full-time faculty would qualify for the added merit pay.

In addition, the plan called for eligible faculty members to receive $1,000 each in merit pay, which would be added to their base salaries.

But at the June meeting of the regents, board members revised the merit pay plan, arguing that merit pay should not be awarded across-the-board to faculty. Board members said an across-the-board pay increase was not merit pay but an automatic pay hike.

Stroup said Wednesday that the administration had backed the merit play plan as drawn up by the Faculty Senate.

She said the regents agreed with the overall concept of the plan, except for the across-the-board provision.

But faculty member Steven Trautwein said the whole process of developing the plan had been "circumvented" by the board's action.

He said the regents' decision not to follow the recommendation of the administration "makes us (faculty) very uncomfortable."

Bruce Parrish, a member of Faculty Senate, wondered if the board understood "how absolutely crucial" it is that faculty members be assured of at least an annual cost-of-living increase.

Shelba Branscum, who headed up the Faculty Senate's compensation committee, indicated that the across-the-board merit pay was not to be considered as a regular pay hike.

"We made it very clear all the way through that this would be merit (pay)," she said.

Stroup said she felt the regents understood the desires of the Faculty Senate in seeking across-the-board merit pay. "I think the point was, they (regents) simply disagreed."

She said the regents "didn't want to commit" to 3 percent automatic pay raises for faculty.

Provost Leslie Cochran said the regents believe merit pay should not be handed out to every faculty member. "They don't believe everybody is meritorious.

"They are coming from a business perspective that is different from a collegial system," he said.

Stroup said that both she and the regents believe that the first priority is to provide regular salary increases for faculty and then funding for merit pay. "I don't think it was ever really their intent to put merit first."

If there is no money available for general pay raises in a given fiscal year, then the university administration would not recommend awarding of merit pay for that year, the university president said.

"If there isn't any money, we won't be doing it (merit pay) anyway," she said.

Faculty Senate member Paul Cherulnik said that if funding for merit pay is not guaranteed, the merit pay system would be "unworkable."

Cochran said, however, that he believes faculty members can expect at least a 5 percent salary increase for the next fiscal year.

He said it's unlikely there would be two consecutive years when no regular pay raises would be given. University employees received no pay raises for the just-started 1992 fiscal year.

Stroup said that the regents' action on merit pay needs to be clarified on some points, but that the university administration and faculty members should move ahead with implementing a merit pay plan within the guidelines set down by the regents.

Stroup said the merit pay issue may be discussed again when the regents meet today. The board meeting is scheduled to begin at 10:30 a.m. in the University Center.