| Summer 2003
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Salaries Shortly you will be notified of your 2003-04 salary. In past years, I have provided some background about the salary process, and I want to do so again. I view the salary increase process as a way to reward meritorious performance. Our salary process is merit-based throughout. Raises are based primarily on performance evaluations. We also pay attention to the market in each of our disciplines and subdisciplines. Raises this year will be lower than in the past two years. Those meeting College and departmental expectations will receive a minimum 1.5 percent raise. In context, the faculty Senate data shows our College doing well relative to our peers (the comparison is the liberal arts in twenty-two AAU publics in 2002-03 salaries), with our salaries 106 percent, 100 percent, and 106 percent respectively of the AAU liberal arts average (from assistant to professor ranks). All but one of our departments at the assistant professor level and all but four at the associate and professor level have higher salaries than the average. In this respect, we are doing very well relative to most of our Penn State college peers. Health and Human Development is the only other college doing as well or better than its peers at all ranks. Last year, Penn State’s salary raises were the highest in the Big 10, but with the more serious financial constraints facing us, it is not surprising that this year’s salary raises will not be as high. Even so, because financial pressures are facing all of public higher education, we expect to gain some ground on many of our peer institutions whose financial problems are worse than ours. Those of you who have been at Penn State a long time know that in bad times, we do better than most of our peers while in good times, we lose ground. Our average raises have been within a narrow two percent band during the past seven years, while some of our competitors had year-to-year fluctuations up to eight percent. We also examine our staff salaries each year to make sure that, grade by grade and years of experience by years of experience, our staff salaries are comparable with our peers around the University. In many past years, we have given extra bumps to good performers at one grade level or another if we see we are falling behind. In some specialty areas, we also look at the salaries in the larger community. The salary process this year has been the same as previous years. Department heads are given a fixed amount to distribute to faculty and to staff (the allocations are separate) on the basis of merit. I hold back funds to add for extra merit, inequities, and market factors. My further adjustments are made on the basis of heads’ recommendations as well as the heads’ and my analyses of salary configurations in the department and the discipline (or in the case of staff, comparable positions around the University and sometimes the community). In the past, this process has gone on while the state was deciding the University budget, based on best predictions of what would happen. This year is no exception, although this year there is somewhat more uncertainty hanging over the budget than normal. Our salary process does assume that Penn State will receive a budget from the state! If you have questions about the process, do not hesitate to ask your department head or me. Susan Welch Private Fund Raising Will Continue The University’s Grand Destiny Campaign is ending June 30. The College has raised $52.3 million during these past seven years. As we (the development staff and the deans) have traveled around the country, we have been overwhelmed by our alumni’s generosity, loyalty, and enthusiasm for Penn State and the College. Of course, raising money is not an end in itself but a means to the end of building a great College. At the heart of building a great College is recruiting a great faculty. Funds from the campaign have allowed us to create fifteen additional named professorships and have provided funds for start-ups and research and teaching support for many others. The campaign has also provided a tremendous increase in support for programs that merge faculty research, student experiences, and outreach. Significant private support has assisted the Richards Civil War Era Center, Rock Ethics Institute, Center for Language Acquisition, and Child Study Center in supporting faculty, students, and programs to increase visibility and impact. Great faculty and strong programs allow us to attract excellent students. The campaign has yielded a fourfold increase in graduate fellowship support and a fivefold increase in undergraduate scholarship funds. These funds also help support our undergraduates who are studying abroad, participating in internship programs, or working with faculty on research projects. But the end of the campaign is neither the end of our needs nor the end
of our efforts to reconnect alumni and show them the opportunities they
have for investing in the future. We have come a long way, but we need
to set our sights on becoming even better. We know that the better you
get, the more it costs. It costs more to compete for outstanding faculty
against the very best institutions. It costs more to recruit and support
graduate students when we are competing against the nation’s top
graduate programs. It also costs more to support our undergraduates, as
Penn State’s tuition has risen and they and their families are under
considerable financial pressure. • Renovation and expansion of the Moore building Although the Grand Destiny campaign has been an unqualified success for the College, supporting an increasingly excellent College in the face of decreasing state support means that we must intensify our fund raising efforts. Department heads have been a part of this effort, and while we only occasionally call on faculty to help in fund raising, we will increasingly call on departments to be good hosts of visiting alumni as we find ways of reconnecting alumni to their departments and programs. I appreciate your support in this effort that is so important to all of us. Susan Welch Farewell and Thanks! With much appreciation, we say farewell to six faculty colleagues who retired this academic year: Jeannette Bragger, Frank Gentry, Robert LaPorte, Ernst Schürer, Peter Schneeman, and James Sweeney. Jeannette Bragger, professor emerita of French, joined Penn State in 1978 and moved through the ranks to become professor in 1989. Jeannette served as associate dean for undergraduate studies from 1985 to 1993, when she became head of the Department of French. Jeannette was an outstanding advisor and teacher and a well known and widely published scholar of language learning. During her career, Jeannette won the University-wide Lindback award for distinguished teaching, the College’s outstanding advising award, and the French graduate student organization award, also for outstanding advising. Frank Gentry, professor emeritus of German, joined Penn State in 1991 as professor of German and head of the Department of German. He served as co-director of the Max Kade Institute from 1997 until his retirement. At Penn State, he was a successful teacher in a range of courses from German civilization general education courses to seminars in medieval literature. A widely known specialist in Medieval German, Frank is the author and editor of numerous articles, chapters, and books. Robert LaPorte, professor emeritus of public administration and political science, retired in January after a thirty-six year career at Penn State. Bob rose through the ranks and was named professor in 1975. An outstanding teacher, Bob was well known in his discipline for his work on the government, politics, and public administration of Pakistan. He was a frequent consultant for the World Bank, USAID, and other agencies promoting and analyzing political and economic development in South Asia. Ernst Schürer, professor emeritus of German and fellow emeritus of the Institute for the Arts and Humanities came to Penn State as professor of German and head of the Department of German, in 1978. In 1990 he resigned from the headship and in 1991 was named a Fellow of the Institute for the Arts and Humanities. Also a superb teacher, Ernst is widely known for his extensive work on twentieth-century German writers, especially Georg Kaiser, Franz Jung, and B. Traven. Peter Schneeman, associate professor emeritus of English, retired in January after thirty-two years at Penn State. Joining the department in 1971, Peter was promoted to associate professor in 1982. He wrote many short stories and specialized in the teaching of fiction. Known as an excellent teacher with rigorous standards and a real concern for helping his students become better writers, Peter won the College’s Outstanding Teaching Award in 1995. Jim Sweeney, professor emeritus of medieval history, joined Penn State in 1974 as an assistant professor and rose through the ranks to be appointed as professor of medieval history in 1990. A specialist on medieval law and society, with a special interest in medieval Hungary, Jim was for many years the sole medieval historian in the department. He was an excellent teacher in courses ranging from medieval English history to the Byzantine empire. Check with your department head! This is the time of year when faculty begin writing fellowship proposals for 2004-05. Several kinds of fellowships and grants, especially in the humanities but also including Fulbrights, do not cover a full salary. It is very important, therefore, that faculty consult with their department heads about grants they are planning to submit, especially grants involving any sort of release time. We work to support faculty winning prestigious grants, but no assumption can be made about Penn State support for the portion of salary not paid for by the grant without prior agreement from the dean. Whether that agreement is given depends on the prestige of the grant, the amount needed, and, of course, the budgetary situation. Your first step, therefore, is to discuss with your head what you are planning. Your head will then need to discuss this with the dean. Please make sure you read and understand the College policy on faculty awards involving released time. Adhering to this policy will avoid embarrassment and disappointment if the grant is awarded but no support can be found. Rules and Procedures of the Liberal Arts Faculty The faculty overwhelmingly approved several amendments to the Rules and Procedures of the Liberal Arts Faculty. These amendments eliminated the Good Offices Panel, gave greater flexibility to timing of the Liberal Arts faculty meetings, and facilitated introduction of amendments via e-mail or mail. Walid Afifi, assistant professor of communication arts and sciences, from The Sharing Network for “The University Worksite Organ Donation Promotion Campaign: Targeting Administrators, Faculty, Staff, and Students Using the Organ Donation Model.” Jeffrey Cohen, assistant professor of anthropology, was awarded a García Robles Fulbright. Jeff will use the grant to work with the Instituto Technologico Oaxaca (teaching two seminars, one in methodology and the other in theory and economic anthropology) and with co-investigators from the ITO. Keith Crnic, head and professor of psychology, from the University of North Carolina for “Children in Rural Poverty: Risk and Protective Mechanisms.” Gordon De Jong, Distinguished Professor of Sociology and Demography and director, graduate program in demography, from the National Science Foundation for “Welfare Reform and Migration of Poor Families.” Greg Eghigian, associate professor of history, won a short-term fellowship from the Wood Institute to conduct research at the Library of the College of Physicians in Philadelphia. Greg will use the fellowship to advance research on his book project that will examine crime, politics, and forensic psychology in Germany between 1933 and 1989. Robyn Spencer, assistant professor of African and African American Studies and history, was awarded a Carnegie Mellon University Postdoctoral fellowship in African American Urban Studies. Tiffany Townsend, assistant professor of psychology, from Virginia Commonwealth University for “Intervention for African American Females.” Frank Gentry, professor of German, was presented with a Festschrift in his honor. Nu lôn ich iu der gâbe was edited by Ernst Ralf Hintz and published by the Kümmerle Verlag (Göppingen 2003). The Festschrift contains twenty-one essays by an international group of scholars and former Ph.D. students and includes a Tabula gratulatoria and Gentry’s publication list.Art Goldschmidt, professor emeritus of Middle East history, received special recognition for distinguished teaching from the Community Academy for Lifelong Learning. Arthur has taught courses on Islamic and Middle East history under CALL sponsorship annually since his retirement from the Univeristy in 2000. Ron Jackson, assistant professor of commmunication arts and sciences, received the Eastern Communication Association's Past President's award for 2003. This is the association's top award and acknowledges research excellence combined with service to the association. Vincent Lankewish, assistant professor of English, won the Commission on LGBT Equity's award for outstanding service to the University's LGBT community. Africana Research Center Grant Awards The following Liberal Arts faculty and students recently won small grants from the Africana Research Center: Sinfree Makoni, associate professor of applied linguistics and African American Studies, for “Bilingualism and Cognitive Impairment in Older African Americans in Manhattan, New York City.” David Shapiro, professor of economics, demography, and women's studies, for “Fertility, Education, and Fostering; Evidence from Cameroon.” Lisa Surwillo, assistant professor of Spanish, for “Uncle Tom's Cabin and Popular Responses to the Trans-Atlantic Slave Trade in Nineteenth Century Spain.” Assata Richards, graduate student in sociology, for “Assessing the Effectiveness of the Sankofa Leadership Seminar.” On Monday, August 25, the College will once again offer an event for new faculty entitled Teaching Issues and Resources in the Penn State Room of the Nittany Lion Inn. New standing faculty will be invited to a luncheon followed by a brief program that will familiarize them with the College resources available for their research and teaching. We are pleased to announce that nine students have received Fulbright Scholarships to study abroad during the 2003-04 academic year. Jodi Bowen, comparative literature; Christy Delafield, Savina Rendina, and Katherine Stine, French; William Roberts, Hasana Sharp, and Amy Wendling, philosophy; Aimee Betz, political science; Matthew Allinson, psychology and labor and industrial relations. Hélène Gresso, graduate assistant in French, won a $7,500 award from the American Council on Education for the best use of technology in internationalizing the curriculum. The award is sponsored by the AT&T Foundation. Hélène designed the linkage between her French class and an English class in France. The Population Research Institute (PRI) will hold its Tenth Annual Demography Graduate Student Methodology Workshop on July 15 from 9:00 a.m. to 1:00 p.m. at the Nittany Lion Inn. This year’s topic is “Missing Data: Theory and Applications.” Speakers for the workshop include Joseph Schafer, associate professor of statistics, Penn State, and Donald Rubin, professor of statistics, Harvard. Leif Jensen, PRI director and professor of rural sociology and demography, will provide an introductory overview. Ice Cream Social All College staff and faculty are invited to attend an ice cream social. The ice cream social will be held from 2:00 p.m. to 3:00 p.m. on Wednesday, July 30, in the lobby and on the steps of Sparks Building. Please join us for a summer treat and good fellowship.Brenda Gates, staff assistant V, African and African American Studies, labor studies and industrial relations, and women's studies Lisa Deyo, project associate (financial resource analyst), sociology, PA Commission on Sentencing Ina Reed, staff assistant V, African and African American Studies, labor studies and industrial relations, and women's studies LA Times is compiled by the Dean’s Office, 110 Sparks, 865-7691. LA Times is also available on the Web at: http://www.la.psu.edu/ This publication is available in alternative media on request. Penn State encourages persons with disabilities to participate in its programs and activities. If you anticipate needing any type of accommodation or have questions about the physical access provided, please call 814-865-7691 in advance of your participation or visit. The Pennsylvania State University is committed to the policy that all persons shall have equal access to programs, facilities, admission, and employment without regard to personal characteristics not related to ability, performance, or qualifications as determined by University policy or by state or federal authorities. It is the policy of the University to maintain an academic and work environment free of discrimination, including harassment. The Pennsylvania State University prohibits discrimination and harassment against any person because of age, ancestry, color, disability or handicap, national origin, race, religious creed, sex, sexual orientation, or veteran status. Discrimination or harassment against faculty, staff, or students will not be tolerated at The Pennsylvania State University. Direct all inquiries regarding the nondiscrimination policy to the Affirmative Action Director, The Pennsylvania State University, 328 Boucke Building, University Park, PA 16802-5901; Tel 814-865-4700/V, 814-863-1150/TTY U. Ed. LBA 03-238 |
