Faculty Senate awaits answers

Metro professors want to know if college will speed up back pay

By Jesse Stephenson
The Metropolitan

Metro President Sheila Kaplan agreed March 9 to give the Faculty Senate information on how many professors are participating in the collegeâs program to distribute back pay.

Monys Hagen, president of the Faculty Senate, said the group requested the data to find how much the college has saved since professors who retire become ineligible to participate in the program.

Kaplan promised in 1996 to dole out about $1 million to certain professors who made less than their peers at colleges similar to Metro.

The 1996 plan stipulates that professors get a portion of the lump sum each year until the year 2001 or until they retire, whichever comes first. 

Professors are allocated back pay according to criteria such as their  length of employment at the college.
At the outset of the plan, 175 Metro professors were eligible to receive back pay, according to Sandi Jones, director of Personnel and Payroll Services. Jones said she hasnât yet calculated how many are still eligible.

Hagen said the Faculty Senate will push the college to hand out the remainder of the back pay immediately if the group discovers the collegeâs payment obligation has been substantially reduced because many professors retired.

ãIf there is money in there that is not being used, why canât it benefit the faculty?ä Hagen asked.

But Kaplan said no matter how much the college might be saving, she has no intention of doling out the money over a shorter period.

ãWeâre going to pay off those payments according to our schedule,ä Kaplan said. ãThereâs an assumption by some people that Iâm sitting on large pots of money, but every dollar I give for (back pay) comes from somewhere else.ä

Hagen said an earlier disbursement of the money would present a fresh opportunity for the faculty and administration to explore ways to compensate professors who make less than their peers elsewhere but werenât eligible for the program in 1996.

Many Metro professors greeted the plan with disdain when it was first unveiled because Kaplan decreased summer salaries to free up funds for the program.

Total payment to people on the back pay plan ranges from a few hundred to several thousand dollars, Kaplan said.

Faculty Senators passed a resolution March 4 demanding the college hand over the pack pay information by April 1.

Metro professor John Schmidt, the author of the resolution, said the data will show whether the college will end up paying a full $1 million to alleviate salary inequities.

Kaplan told The Metropolitan that figure was a ãdynamicä sum, meaning Metro will pay professors what they are owed under the 1996 plan but nothing extra.

Longtime Metro professors say theyâve been aware of salary inequities since the mid-1980s and 60 are suing the college on grounds they havenât been paid on par with professors at other colleges.

The group first filed suit in 1993.