September 28, 2006

Department Heads’ Meeting Minutes

September 28, 2006 – 11:00 a.m.

Tom Wyrick (ECO), Michael Sheng (HST), Pam Sailors (PHI), Beat Kernen (PLS), Jim Moyer (REL), Karl Kunkel (SOC), Victor Matthews and Lorene Stone.
 

Announcements

Upcoming Deadlines/Important Dates

            October 5                     Provost’s Research Forum, Noon, PSU 313

            October 9                     Higher Ed Leadership Forum, 3:00 p.m., University Plaza

            October 19 & 20          CHPA Grant Writing Workshop.  Availability of open seats was offered to

                                                 the College of Arts and Letters and one faculty member accepted.  A total of

 23 faculty have confirmed participation in the workshop.

October 25                   CHPA Scholarship Banquet

Dean Stone expects a good turnout for the Fall Convocation speaker, William Cohen, Secretary of Defense in the Cabinet of former President Clinton, on October 3.
 

Dean Stone encouraged attendance of Department Heads at President Nietzel’s Leadership Forum to be held on October 4 at 3:00 p.m. (PSU 313) and geared toward strengthening and developing Department Head leadership.
 

It was announced at Academic Council that a large ad for faculty recruitment will be placed in The  Chronicle of Higher Education.
 

With guidelines for choosing a commencement speaker for the December ceremony to include emphasis on successful alumni and/or community members, Dean Stone asked Department Heads for suggested names to forward to Assistant Provost John Catau for consideration.

Dean Stone asked Department Heads for department representatives for both the College Compensation Committee and the College Public Affairs Conference Committee.
 

Discussion

Dean Stone introduced  Dr. Steve Thomas, Professor of Management, to explain and/or answer questions about the Compensation Matrix.  Dr. Thomas distributed three comparative examples and emphasized that decisions yet to be made at the college or department level will determine the final process.  In the interim, the need exists to establish where people are in the data base together with rank and discipline comparisons to establish pay ranges.
 

Discussion of department criteria for the Compensation Plan continued:

• Current tenure/promotion documents are due to the Provost tomorrow; once the compensation plan criteria are established, these must be reflected in tenure/promotion documents.  These documents will need to be revised by next fall.
• Department Heads agreed that merit evaluation should replace the Annual Faculty Review.
• Since uniformity in rounding of ratings may be expected for all colleges, Department Heads agreed to take it to one decimal point if there is an option.
• One-year v. two-year periods for evaluation were discussed.