ADMINISTRATION BACKS FACULTY MERIT PAY PLAN

CAPE GIRARDEAU -- Southeast Missouri State University Provost Leslie Cochran supports a faculty merit pay plan proposed by the Faculty Senate.

Cochran told the Faculty Senate Wednesday that he would recommend to President Kala Stroup that the merit plan be implemented.

He also predicted the plan would lead to non-faculty employee groups at Southeast developing their own merit pay plans.

Under the merit pay plan, faculty members would receive an across-the-board pay raise of at least 3 percent annually for each of the next three years. In addition, eligible faculty members each year would receive $1,000 in merit pay.

The university would assure a total annual merit-pay increase of 5 percent under the plan, which would be implemented starting with the 1991-92 academic year.

The merit pay would come off the top of the budget and be added to the faculty members' base pay.

The regular salary package negotiated annually would be considered separate from merit pay, university officials said.

Wednesday, the Faculty Senate, at the suggestion of Cochran, agreed to revise the merit pay plan to allow the 3 percent general merit pay to be withheld from a faculty member who did not warrant such pay.

Such pay could be withheld only with the agreement of two-thirds of the full-time faculty members of the affected department and the concurrence of the department chairperson and dean.

In that case, the money that would have gone for a general merit increase for that individual would be used instead to help with that person's professional development.

Cochran said such a provision makes it more of a merit plan than simply an across-the-board pay raise, although he conceded that it would be a rare occasion for the general merit pay to be withheld from a faculty member.

In a letter to Alberta Dougan, Faculty Senate chairperson, Cochran congratulated Dougan and the senate on the merit pay plan.

"I am sure you never thought you would be able to wrap up the merit issue, but you have done a great job in bringing closure to the many questions surrounding faculty merit.

"Some thought the debate would never end and others probably thought it was a waste of time," wrote Cochran.

The provost said the merit plan has "moved the university forward in a very positive manner."

He acknowledged that he had some reservations about the "commingling of salary and merit dollars."

But he said, "the positive aspects of this plan greatly outweigh the negatives."

Said Cochran, "It is time to set aside any remaining differences and move forward."