Provost Martin briefs faculty senate on salary program, gender equity study

By Jacquie Powers

Provost Biddy Martin briefed members of the Cornell Faculty Senate on two key issues at their regular monthly meeting Nov. 14: gender equity and the faculty salary program.

Martin said the results of the recently completed Gender Equity Study "were extremely positive, I am happy to say. There was no statistically significant difference in pay by gender in any college at Cornell."

Martin said the faculty panel conducting the study used a multiple regression analysis for each college, with more than a dozen variables. They first looked at men and women whose actual salary was 5 percent below the projected salary and found that gender had no significant difference. They then looked at men and women whose actual salary was 10 percent below the projected salary and found that, while there was still no significant difference, more women were both 10 percent above and 10 percent below the projected salary than men.

The faculty panel also visited with all college deans to discuss how they make salary improvement decisions and to review the salaries of women faculty that were 5 percent or more below the projected salary, Martin said. The panel then made two recommendations:

• to determine whether some greater similarity in faculty salary policies across colleges could lessen confusion and frustration among faculty about salaries; and

• to give continued attention to attracting and retaining outstanding women faculty.

Martin also said there was good news on the faculty salary improvement program. She said that in the fiscal year beginning July 1, 2001, the first year of the six-year salary improvement program, the overall increase in monies allocated for all continuing faculty was 8.1 percent. The overall increase for endowed faculty was 8.4 percent, while the overall increase for contract college faculty was 7.7 percent. She explained that salary increases for individuals covered a wide range, with some increases far exceeding those percentages and some being far lower.

"And," she added, "we plan to continue to aggressively address the issue of faculty salaries, despite the weak economic conditions we find ourselves in currently."

In other business, the senate unanimously approved a resolution asking the provost to require all academic units seeking to change their name degree designations to give advance notice to all the academic units.

Terrence Fine, professor of electrical and computer engineering and chair of the Committee on Academic Programs and Policies, explained before the vote that the resolution was designed to avoid potential conflicts and confusion.