Western Front - 1984 November 6

              WESTERN FRONT
TUESDAY, NOVEMBER 6, 1984 WESTERN WASHINGTON UNIVERSITY, BELLINGHAM, WA
PLEASE RECYCLE
VOL. 76, NO. 51
Trustees approve
proposal potluck
By Shelley McKedy
A potpourri of proposals were
approved by the Board of Trustees
at a meeting Thursday where
Western President G. Robert Ross
lambasted a proposed 20 percent
tuition hike.
The university's highest govern­ing
bodyapproved a biomechanics
laboratory, an energy conserva­tion
program and a travel
agreement.
A S330.500 biomechanics labor­atory
will be built onto Carver
Gym's southwest corner this win­ter.
The 2.800-square foot lab will
be built by Dawson Construction
Co., a Bellingham firm.
Biomechanics is the study and
evaluation of human movement.
The lab will have a classroom, a
running track and strength and
posture testing equipment.
Other improvements to Carver
Gym will include installing fiber­glass
panels over the existing walls
in the racquetball courts.
The trustees also unanimously
approved to launch what they
called an energy conservation
program.
Matching a 5110,000 grant the
university received last year from
the U.S. Department of Energy,
the trustees voted to have insula­tion
installed on the maze of pipes
running through campus buildings.
The trustees also voted to have
the architecture firm. Leschky,
Marquardt and Nesholm of Seat­tle,
draw plans for major remodel­ing
in the Viking Commons dining
area.
Don Cole, vice president for
financial affairs, said the Viking
Commons dining area has not
been remodeled since 1961.
If approved, the approximately
$225,000 project would start next
summer and be completed by fall
quarter.
In other business, the trustees
voted to approve a two-year travel
contract with Bellingham Travel.
The university had a trial contract
• see TRUSTEES,' page 12
El.ISA CI.,
Trey Cummings, a tight end for Western's football team, enjoyed a f ew moments with family
and friends after Saturday's tie game against the University of Puget Sound. Cumming's sister
Kym (left), father George, Diane Ruizen and mother Donna (far right with hood) drove from
Federal Way for the Parent's Weekend game.
New salary policy explored
for future merit increases
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By Brian Malvey
President G. Robert Ross'
request to the Legislature for more
merit money in the next biennium
has moved the Faculty Senate to
reconsider its merit policy.
The senate, on Oct. 29, stopped
short of mandating its Salary and
Welfare Committee to review
merit and recommend specific
changes to the policy.
But the committee, which
already was reviewing salary pol­icy,
now is soliciting comment
from faculty on merit poiicy.
Senate President June Ross
asked the committee to report its
findings to the senate before the
end of the quarter.
Ross' request for a 3.1 percent
increase in faculty salaries to be
distributed on the basis of merit
follows a 3.1 percent merit increase
appropriated by the Legislature to
all the state's colleges and universi­ties
this biennium.
The original 3.1 percent is part
of a 6.7 percent increase in faculty
salaries at Western approved by
the senate Oct. I and the Board of
Trustees Thursday.
The salary schedule will become
effective Jan. 1, 1985.
One problem facing the senate in
dealing with large amounts of
merit money is current merit policy
was designed to distribute smaller
amounts.
Merit awards, listed as merit
increments in the faculty hand­book,
traditionally are drawn from
recapture funds and other money
left over after the regular salary
schedule is adjusted. Recapture
funds are the difference in salaries
between faculty members who
leave their position and their
replacements.
Sen. Phillip Montague said cur­rent
merit policy was based on the
presupposition merit increases
would be small.
If substantial merit increasesare
going to be appropriated yearly,
Montague said, the senate should
start thinking about alternatives to
the current policy.
Sen. Hugh Fleetwood said the
substantial increases scheduled to
begin Jan. 1 were seen last year as a
one-time increase.
But if substantial dollar
amounts for merit are to be part of
each budget, he said, then the
senate should, "at the very least.''
look at its merit policy.
Questions also are being raised
by some faculty about the effect of
merit increases on the gap between
salaries at Western.
The 6.7 percent increase is the
total increase for all faculty and
does not reflect the actual distribu­tion
of funds.
According to the salary sche­dule,
3.1 percent will fund merit, 2
percent for normal and extended
step increases and only 1.2 percent
for an across-the-board increase.
Less than half the faculty will
share in the merit increases.
Eighty-four will receive the 1.2
percent.
Sen. George Lamb, member of
the salary and welfare committee,
said the 29-step faculty salary
ladder will be raised five steps to
accommodate the increases.
Lamb said if substantial
amounts of merit money are
appropriated in each budget and
the salary ladder raised, then a
salary gap between the highest and
lowest paid faculty will expand.
Les Spanel, the committee's
chairman, said increases for indi­vidual
faculty members will range
from 1.2 percent to 20.4 percent.
Some faculty will receive annual
raises of about $300 while others
will get close to $7,000.
Spanel said so far faculty
response to the merit increases has
been mostly negative. But he said
he imagined those who got the big
increases are content and have not
responded.
Much of the concern, he said, is
about the magnitude of the in­creases
and the fact they were
based on a one-time evaluation.
Each college and school of
Western handled its own merit dis­tribution
but was required to fol­low
the same evaluation guidelines
used for tenure and promotion.
Unlike tenure and promotion,
however, no appeals were allowed
on merit decisions.
Evelyn Wright, president of the
American Federation of Teachers
at Western, said many faculty are
raising questions about the sche­duled
merit increases.
Wright said Western already has
merit pay through its system of
tenure and promotion.
She said further requests for
large amounts of merit money
could cause the Legislature to
appropriate less for regular salary
increases and further expand
Western's salary gap.
If current merit policy is con­tinued
that gap could expand until
it is incompatible with the univer­sity
community, she said.
By Lisa Heisey
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