BY ELIZABETH EDNIE
Starting today, Stonehill’s chapter of the American Association of University Professors (AAUP) is asking that faculty, staff and students wear black shirts to symbolize the effort to fight for what was described as fair pay raises.
Associate Professor of Philosophy Megan Michell, AAUP chapter president, said Stonehill’s chapter is requesting black shirts be worn by staff, faculty and students today and for the next two Thursdays to support the faculty and staff who have endured salary freezes, pay cuts, and retirement cuts.
“We have been asked to do more, work harder, and manage the fallout of a global pandemic on our students without adequate support or resources,” Mitchell said in a letter to Stonehill’s AAUP members, encouraging them to participate in the movement and spread the word.
The issues center on pay and what is called “pay compensation” after the College eliminated the pay grid detailing pay raises based on rank and years of service.
On Tuesday, President John Denning C.S.C., sent a letter to full-time faculty containing an update on the adoption of a series of recommendations for a new faculty compensation model along with the compensation strategies the College plans to take into the next fiscal year. A college spokesperson declined to release that letter to The Summit.
That same day, the Faculty Senate's Faculty Compensation Committee (FCC) sent a letter to faculty members expressing concerns with the new plan, claiming that what the President outlined did not correlate with what the committee was asking for. The letter from the committee noted that it agreed with one point by the president in raising the pay for those newly promoted. The group disagreed with the other two points involving compression and stagnation, and the peer aspirant institution comparison list.
The compression and stagnation point describes inequities with newly hired faculty members starting at a higher salary even before the new salary model has been implemented.
“To achieve internal pay equity we need to ‘fix the grid before we leave it.’ Changing our salary model without also making the necessary investments to start at an equitable pay structure will solidify these inequities in irrevocable ways,” the letter said.
The third point describes the peer aspirant institution comparison list, which measures Stonehill’s salary grid against other nearby institutions. The letter from the committee said that the faculty salary grid provided transparency, predictability, and stability, and with the absence of the grid, the list of comparison institutions is the most important component of the new salary plan.
Jill Goddard, spokesperson for the College said that Senior Administration works through a budget process to build a fair, sustainable and equitable annual operating budget that balances resources. She said that this includes any changes to compensation and benefits for all employees.
This past fall, the Stonehill AAUP chapter, led by Mitchell, along with student groups on campus such as Students In Action (SIA) and March For Our Lives (MFOL) launched an attempt to press the Senior Administration on pay issues with a rally, but it was canceled due to a power outage caused by a storm.
Mitchell said she hopes Stonehill’s AAUP chapter can leverage the power of students, alumni, faculty and staff and can convince the Senior Administration and the Board of Trustees to change direction and invest in Stonehill’s employees.
“The faculty and staff are hurting,” Mitchell said. “We encourage all faculty, staff, and students to join with us in wearing black shirts to show that Stonehill must make its people a priority. We cannot lose more of the people who make Stonehill what it is.”
Students In Action member, Karly O’Keefe said that SIA’s role in this effort is to bring awareness to students, break down the language, and to translate the jargon so it’s easier to understand.
“I think this issue can be easily misconstrued as an issue that does not pertain to students, but professors being unable to afford to work here or taking on an unreasonably heavy workload has already affected students and will continue to worsen,” O’Keefe said.
Daniel Itzkovitz, co-chair of the Faculty Senate committee said that he and his colleagues do not think that the compensation plan approved by the president is fair or effective.
“We are truly worried about what this will mean for our already-depleted faculty, for our students, and for the school more broadly,” Itzkovitz said.
The committee is not scheduled to meet with Senior Administration again until late February, according to Itzkovitz.
Along with Itzkovitz and the Senate Faculty committee, Mitchell also sent a letter to faculty members on Wednesday stating that the compensation model proposed by President Denning failed to address “internal equity” and “external market competitiveness.”
According to Mitchell, key faculty and staff members across the College have left or been let go and have not been replaced. She also said that despite college employees leaving, the Senior Administrative footprint has continued to grow and the endowment has soared to new heights.
“In early December, 118 full-time faculty members (70 percent of our full-time faculty) sent a letter Father John and to the Senior Administrators asking them to prioritize its people and not just its endowment,” Mitchell said. “As full-time faculty, we must resist these changes which threaten our livelihoods, our ability to educate our students, and the long-term health of the College. We must work together with part-time faculty and Stonehill staff, who face low pay and unfair working conditions.”
Because of this ongoing fight, Mitchell encourages faculty to consider joining Stonehill’s chapter of AAUP to help secure fair pay and working conditions for all of Stonehill’s employees.
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