Faculty Senate
Message on Distribution of Equity Funds
by Dr. David Saunders
President, Boise State University Faculty Senate
In December of 2005, the Provost met with the Faculty Financial Affairs Committee, one of the Senate subcommittees, to ask us to undertake two very important activities on behalf of the faculty at Boise State. We were charged with: 1. determining how BSU faculty salaries compare with those of our sister institutions, and 2. coming up with a formula for distributing money earmarked for salary equity, or more exactly for addressing faculty salary inequities. The committee worked through the spring semester to create a system (a rather elegant one, if we do say so) that would be adjustable according to data available to the Provost’s office. This system would need to take into account faculty salaries by rank and discipline as compared with data from sister institutions, the amount of funding available for equity adjustments; and to provide a flexible distribution system using percentages of disparity - or need for adjustment - coupled with the actual affect on salaries. Meaning, with limited resources any attempt to address ALL inequities would result in a-buck-and-a-quarter for all of us – we’re all underpaid, I know you’ll agree. So the most glaring inequities are being addressed first, and gradually, hopefully, all will eventually be addressed. One note: these faculty salaries do NOT take into account issues of merit or compression. Those will be tackled with other money and through separate mechanisms.
The Faculty Senate in spring ’06 was shown the system that the FFA set up, and voted unanimously to endorse it.
David Saunders, President, Faculty Senate, and 2005-06 member, the Faculty Financial Affairs Committee
January 2007