INDIANA STATE UNIVERSITY                                                                            FACULTY SENATE

COMMITTEE MEMBERSHIP

Nobel Corey, Kathy Gaul, Linda Maule (Chairperson), Laurence Rosenhein, Steve Shure, Steven Pontius, Reza Raeisi (replaced Marilyn Sample), Amit Sinha (Secretary), Anthanassios Strigkas (Vice Chair, Fall 2006)

Executive Liaison: Tim Mulkey

Ex-Officio: Mark Green

MEETINGS AND ATTENDANCE

The FEBC scheduled fourteen meetings during the AY 2006-2007—seven meetings each semester. On two occasions we did not have a quorum (9/18, 9/25, 10/9, 10/23, 11/6, 11/20, 1/22, 2/5, 2/19, 3/12, 4/9, 4/16) .

Two of the nine members, excluding the executive liaison and the ex-officio member, attended every meeting: Drs. Rosenhein and Sinha.

Three of the nine members, excluding the executive liaison and the ex-officio member, attended all but one meeting: Librarian Gaul and Drs. Maule and Pontius.

The FEBC met with Ms. Candy Barton, Human Resources, five times and with Vice-President Floyd and Mr. Jeff Jasco two times.

CHARGES FOR THE ACADEMIC YEAR 2006-2007

New Charges:

1. Sustainability: Stay informed as to the ongoing concerns as to the ability of ISU to sustain its retirement benefits program.  ACTION TAKEN

2. Disability: Determine the validity of the policy that if an ISU employee becomes disabled and retires that he or she cannot collect health benefits unless they have served ISU for 20 years: IN PROCESS

Charges suggested by the 2005-2006 FEBC Committee

1. Retirement Packages:  Evaluate potential pools of faculty per age group and years of service to see if creation of targeted retirement packages will facilitate turnover and reorganization/prioritization activities. NO ACTION TAKEN

2. CDM: Work with the University committee for Chronic Disease Management for content appropriate for ISU employees including stress management. NO ACTION TAKEN

3. Disability Insurance Coverage: Investigate supplemental Disability Insurance coverage for those employees who would like to pay for the opportunity to increase their after tax compensation to 75% of their pre-disability income: CLARIFYING INFORMATION DISSEMINATED

4. Left over items: Address items deemed important listed in the University Benefits Committee report of 2004-2005 that have not been incorporated into the benefits package. ACTION TAKEN

ACCOMPLISHMENTS FOR AY 2006-2007

Sent forward to the Faculty Senate and the President a recommendation on how to distribute among faculty, EAP, and staff the $1.5 million surplus

Worked collaboratively with Human Resources to develop mechanisms for better educating the ISU community about Flexible Spending Accounts and Spectera Voluntary Vision Coverage.

Worked collaboratively with Human Resources to encourage Anthem to change their system so that prescriptions could be refilled 7-days prior to depletion of a current refill

Worked collaboratively with Human Resources to better educate ourselves about disability coverage in order to make reasonable recommendations in response to two charges regarding disability coverage

1. Human Resources should post on the Employee Compensation website and send out via global e-mail and targeted portal messages an information sheet on Indiana State University’s CIGNA Long-Term Disability Insurance (who is covered, who pays for coverage, what are the benefits should someone become disabled, what are the issues surrounding disability coverage).

2. Human Resources should assess whether ISU’s CIGNA Long-Term Disability Insurance can be increased from 60% of the base appointment salary minus payments contributed by ISU to 65%.

3. Waiting for an actuarial assessment of the cost of reducing the number of years from 20-15 in order for an employee on disability to receive health benefits.

Worked collaboratively with the Vice President of Finance and Business Affairs on the sustainability of our current retirement benefits and health benefits

1. Sent forward 13 recommendations, which are founded on the premise that the Finance and Business Affairs Office and the Presidents Office must make transparent any movement towards modifying retirement or employee benefits and that such modifications should occur only after dissemination of relevant information and full discussion among all of the constituencies of the fiscal issues and possible solutions.

SUGGESTED CHARGES FOR NEXT YEAR’S (AY 2007-2008)  FEBC

1. CDM: Work with the University committee for Chronic Disease Management for content appropriate for ISU employees including stress management.

2. Explore whether or not the promotion increments in base pay should be raised. Consider whether or not faculty are leaving ISU because promotion won't bring the financial reward that a move to another university would. Comparisons with peer institutions would be appropriate. Suggest dollar values for each increment.  Also, make recommendations concerning ‘floor’ levels in light of your recommendations concerning promotion increments.

3. In light of the below statements, FEBC is encouraged to set up a subcommittee of knowledgeable faculty, whose sole function is to become acquainted with the budget and the budget process, working with the administration to make recommendations through FEBC concerning both short-run and long-run salary issues. It may be advantageous to draw on the expertise contained from AAUP members with their access to national data.

 Statements:

AAUP guidelines state that

“The faculty should participate both in the preparation of the total institutional budget and (within the framework of the total budget) in decisions relevant to the further apportioning of its specific fiscal divisions (salaries, academic programs, tuition, physical plant and grounds, etc.). The soundness of resulting decisions should be enhanced if an elected representative committee of the faculty participates in deciding on the overall allocation of institutional resources and the proportion to be devoted directly to the academic program. This committee should be given access to all information that it requires to perform its task effectively, and it should have the opportunity to confer periodically with representatives of the administration and governing board.

It further states:

The faculty is expected to establish faculty salary policies and, in its primary responsibility for the educational function of the institution, to participate also in broader budgetary matters primarily as these impinge on that function.

Budgetary decisions directly affecting those areas for which, according to the Statement on Government, the faculty has primary responsibility-curriculum, subject matter and methods of instruction, research, faculty status, and those aspects of student life which relate to the educational process-should be made in concert with the faculty.