On Thursday, in a roll-call vote, the Faculty Senate unanimously rejected the Faculty Salary Enhancement Plan with 23 negative votes and one abstention.

The Senate held a meeting open to the MSU community to address the Faculty Salary Enhancement Plan presented by University President Jesse Rogers and other senior administrators on Oct. 8.

Vice-chair Kathleen Roberts made the motion to endorse the Faculty Salary Enhancement Plan, which led to the panel discussion.

Chair James Owen invited members of the audience to address their concerns to the Faculty Senate.

According to the Senate minutes, some faculty stated some summer faculty would not teach if the compensation package is not adequate.

Others said the math given in Rogers’ proposal on Monday did not add up.

“How can $500,000 be split among six colleges and cover a 4 percent raise,” one faculty member asked during the discussion.

The senators themselves did discuss the plan – some said the Faculty Salary Enhancement Plan was “a shell game with a lot of smokes and mirrors.”

Other commentary from the Senate on the Enhancement Plan included an overall lack of faith that the administrators can take the required steps to make the 4 percent pool.

At the meeting, many eligible faculty for the Voluntary Separation Program said they felt unappreciated and they were being pushed out.

The Senate then voted in favor of the following position statement:

“While the Faculty Senate rejects the Faculty Salary Enhancement Plan as written, the Faculty Senate acknowledges the financial needs of the university and wishes to participate in developing alternative plans to meet these needs.”

Rogers said he acknowledged the recommendation of the Faculty Senate.

“I am pleased that the Faculty Senate clearly recognizes that we need a short-term and long-term financial plan,” he said. “I am pleased they want to work with us on developing it.”

With an open discussion with faculty members, many voiced their concern about the Enhancement Plan, especially involving capping of summer faculty pay.

With the $1.7 million deficit this year that must be fixed before November, the senior administrators proposed a professor pay cut for next summer in order to increase the nine-month faculty salary.

Many members of the Senate and professors who spoke at Thursday’s Faculty Senate meeting were outraged by this suggestion.

“I told the faculty that the plan was a draft,” Rogers said. “In fact, it was recommended by the Faculty Senate Executive Committee and the deans that meet with the entire faculty to begin discussion of the draft plan.”

Rogers said the administration separately intend to visit each college as soon as they can schedule it and  then they would work with the Faculty Senate to finalize the plan.

“Of course we considered possible backlash from the proposed capping of faculty summer salaries,” Rogers said. “However, I made it clear that we were doing this to move the funds into the base contract of the faculty. I thought this would be mitigating.”

Some faculty members suggested at Thursday’s meeting that there should be a pay cut for faculty, staff and administrators.

Rogers said he doesn’t like the idea of an across-the-board reduction in salaries.

“The plan is to increase faculty salaries, which is a top priority,” he said. “We must balance the budget, but cutting faculty salaries would be a very poor way of accomplishing this.”

Rogers said there was a misconception that disturbed him. Despite the belief of some faculty members and the anonymous e-mail to faculty sent out last Wednesday, Rogers said he and other administrators were not confirmed prior to the meeting.

“Dr. Stewart and I would have been present if it had been made clear to us that we were to be there,” Rogers said. “A couple of Senators indicated to me that it might be best that we not attend so that the faculty would feel free to speak openly.

Rogers said he will begin to work with the Faculty Senate after meeting with each individual college to discuss the Faculty Salary Enhancement Plan.

Dale McDonald, Faculty Senate member, was the only one to not participate in the roll call.

During the meeting, McDonald said he wanted to meet with his colleagues before making a decision.

“I personally am very much in the information gathering stage in my role representing the College Science and Mathematics on the Faculty Senate,” McDonald said. “I am looking forward to the opportunity to listen further to the thoughts and ideas of President Rogers, Provost Stewart and Vice President Fowle in the discussion with the faculty.”

Foreign language instructor Sarah Butler said faculty morale is low.

“Many feel helpless against the trends of education in our state,” Butler said. “It seems that faculty and administration are often working at cross purposes.”

At the Faculty Senate meeting, Butler voiced her opinion on the university not fully focusing on academics.

“Having a  voice on campus is important for everyone, including the faculty,” she said. “The Faculty Senate is an effective body for making that voice heard. It is the faculty’s responsibility to communicate with its representatives on the Senate about issues of concern.”

Rogers said he is pleased that the Faculty Senate stated their recognition of the need to balance our current budget.

“We are going to propose that Dr. Stewart and Dr. Fowle and I worked with six faculty members from each college to redraft the proposal and propose more cuts.”

Rogers said he will then bring that redraft to the Senate.

“I want everyone to know that we have been refining the draft plan for our future discussions,” he said.