Compensation Task Force

January 30, 2004

Compensation Task Force

As you know, last fall the Board of Trustees established an Ad Hoc Task Force to review the University’s compensation history and practices across the faculty, non-union staff and senior administrative groups. I thought it valuable to provide a brief update on actions and progress of the group.

The Task Force is comprised of four faculty from the University’s Faculty Rights and Welfare Committee, four Professional and Administrative Staff (PAS) selected by the president of the PAS, and four senior administrators appointed by the President. The specific participants are as follows.

Faculty: Jim Almeida; Faramarz Fatemi; William Roberts; Sorin Tuluca

PAS: Valerie Adams; Indira Govindan; Frank Lawson; Maureen Curry

Administration: Shelley Drucker; Sally Hashem; Wayne Richardson; Carl Viola

I met with the Task Force on December 18th to deliver the charge and to answer any questions. I asked Sally Hashem, VP for Human Resources and Career Management, to serve as the convener for the Task Force. In that role, Sally’s responsibility is to schedule the meetings, serve as a conduit of information and expedite the work of the Task Force.

The charge of the Task Force’s review is fourfold:

• Identify a common external peer group of institutions that could be used to benchmark the salaries of the faculty, professional staff and the senior administration;

• Determine the level of parity that exists among FDU’s faculty, non-union staff and senior administration internally as well as with external peer groups;

• Evaluate the progress made toward reaching the goals outlined in recent studies; and

• Recommend a course of action that will create a sense of fairness in the compensation of these three groups.

The starting point for the Task Force review was both the June 2001 Salary Study that was prepared by the administration in collaboration with the Faculty Rights and Welfare Committee and the leadership of PAS, and the 2001 study conducted by Deloitte & Touche on the compensation of the senior administrative staff.

The group established a rigorous meeting schedule throughout the month of January. Much progress has been made and work continues. We should see a draft report in early February.

The goal is to use the findings of the Task Force as the foundation for future compensation decisions as we move forward together.