Presidential Evaluation and Compensation

As promised, here are some thoughts on the President's evaluation and compensation.

First of all, there are two related but distinct issues here: evaluation and compensation. As is true with faculty members, it is possible that the President might receive a very positive annual evaluation but no salary increase because of the current fiscal situation.

Evaluation is handled each year by the Board of Regents. As I reported at Faculty Senate, the President set out goals for the year at the September meeting. (In fact, your senators should have a copy of the President's goals.) In addition to looking at his success in meeting those goals, the Board of Regents will this year hire an outside consulting firm to conduct an independent review of the President's performance. We will be holding a retreat in late February to prepare for this review. As I learn more, I will share information with you. I am determined that that faculty will have a significant and meaningful role in this process.

I personally would like to see a more meaningful instrument than the current Senior Administration Evaluation Survey. I realize that this instrument was chosen by the Faculty Senate Evaluation Committee a couple of years ago, but many of the questions on that instrument seem less than helpful. (For example, we have no idea what is meant by "barriers to success.") And the instrument asks us to evaluate senior administrators as a group rather than as individuals. Surely we can get better information from a different instrument. Of course, faculty evaluations of the President would only be one key part of his total evaluation (just as student evaluations are only one key part in faculty annual evaluations).

I would also like to see more transparency in the evaluation of the President. While the evaluation process is a personnel matter (and thus the actual discussions are carried out in closed session), the results are public. As many of you know, other university boards in the state provide specific evaluation criteria as well as numerical ratings of the job performance of their presidents. While I cannot promise that I can persuade the Board to adopt such a model, I am hopeful that the Board will provide more specific information about the evaluation process and the results than it has done in the past.

Now, the President's compensation is probably the most controversial issue here. Do remember that parts of the President's compensation package were negotiated as part of his contract. Thus, increases to his deferred compensation account are not really up for discussion or debate. Also, I hope you will remember that the Board voted two years ago to provide the possibility of performance bonuses for the President. Most faculty I have talked to don't like the idea of a bonus for the President, but that policy was adopted by the Board and will not likely be revised or rescinded during the next few years.

As many of you are aware, at the Presidential forums Dr. Andrews stated that it was unlikely that employees at MSU will receive raises for 2009-10. Given that fact--as well as the continuing gloomy economic forecasts--I would find it very difficult to vote for a presidential raise or bonus of any sort. And I hope that the other members of the Board would feel the same way.

Please note that this statement is not a reflection on the President's job performance one way or the other. It is simply a realistic acknowledgment that we live in difficult economic times and that we all have to make sacrifices as a result. It is also an acknowledgment that we are dealing with public money--state appropriations, federal grant money, and tuition dollars--and that we have to be wise stewards of these resources.

Since this topic is especially tricky, I want to talk with the President early in the spring about this very issue. Please continue to let me know what you're thinking about all these issues,as well as anything else on your mind, so that I can best represent you.

Look for another post in the next week.

Stay Tuned

I recently received two excellent comments--one on the President's salary, and the other on the Space Science Center. I am buried under a mound of student work to grade, but I want to respond to both of these comments the week after finals.

(BTW, typically the Faculty Regent gets a course off each semester, but this semester I am teaching a full load of 12 hours because of some scheduling problems for the fall.)

If you have comments on the topics above or any other topic at the University, I would love to hear from you.

Happy grading. Look for some commentary next week.
Ron