By ryan
President Hunter R. Rawlings III and Provost Biddy (Carolyn A.) Martin held a question and answer session yesterday with faculty in the College of Arts and Sciences to address the proposed faculty salary plan. The financial policies committee of the Faculty Senate and an ad hoc committee from the arts college has worked with administrators over the past year to identify a salary goal based on peer institutions. The plan is to increase salaries over the next five years in the endowed colleges and over six years in the statutory colleges. Some lecturers and senior lecturers, however, expressed concern at the meeting that the plan is aimed primarily at tenured professors. “We have faculty who bring us some very good ideas; these faculty cost something,” Rawlings told faculty. “The proper goal was that Cornell should reach the median of peer groups over a period of time,” Rawlings explained. “The endowed colleges have, over the past five years, oscillated around 90 percent of the median. Now we have to try to move that from 90 percent to 100 percent.” The plan, though, will not target individual professors, but the average of salary. Deans in each college will maintain discretion in determining salaries for individual faculty. Moreover, the proposal does not account for salary raises for faculty members who are not tenured professors. “It’s a different set of issues, that doesn’t mean it’s a less important issue,” Rawlings said. “I do believe that our first faculty meeting will be open to further discussion,” said Phillip E. Lewis, the Harold Tanner dean of the arts college, addressing lecturers who attended the meeting. The principle sources of revenue for the increase include a pay-out from the endowment, as well as tuition increases. An addition of $150 million dollars to the endowment will be used both to cover the salary raises and an increase in financial aid. “I’m very confident that this plan will succeed financially,” Rawlings said. Members of the ad hoc committee also expressed confidence in the proposal at the meeting. “We do remember the day that the administration said something different than what they had been,” said Prof. R. Laurence Moore, history. “We’re pleased with our success in terms of getting a commitment toward a goal.”Archived article by Beth Herskovits
By ryan
While many students in the School of Hotel Administration are quick to name high starting salaries and exciting career options as their primary reasons for studying hospitality, the school’s new dean, David Butler, spoke to The Sun about the importance of hospitality as an integral part of civilization’s history and his plans and priorities for the school. Q: How did your previous job as the school’s associate dean of executive education prepare you for your new position? A: Since I served as the dean for the executive education operation for several years, my job was to go out around the world to this industry and talk about what they needed in the world of education. So it was kind of a nice preparation for my current role. Q: Which issues do you view as most important to the hotel school right now? A: This school, for decades, has been extraordinarily global in the impact and influence on the industry. I think what will remain for many years the most fundamental issue of the school has been the one that is stated here [in the school’s mission statement], and that is both to create knowledge and to disseminate knowledge about hospitality management to the global industry. Q: How do you personally interpret the mission of the school, and what are the biggest challenges facing the school? A: The fundamental mission [is one of] creating and disseminating knowledge about hospitality management to the global hospitality industry, with a big emphasis on both “global” and “hospitality.” In thinking about how to summarize what the school most needs to focus on, I think there’s a lot of value in just having a few words that sort of contain the essence of the critical ideas. It’s a little bit like companies that have some sort of slogan. After a lot of discussion with our faculty and our students and our alumni and other leaders in the industry … I came up with the Four R’s, if you will: