Dealing with humans, their emotions and their money will occupy Professor Becky Tallent”s time as chair of a task force on spread pay this academic year.
Spread pay, a nine-month salary spread out over a 12-month period, is an option that Tallent said many faculty members depend on. Possible legal concerns from the state, a strain on university payroll faculty and concerns about fairness have put the option”s existence in jeopardy.
John Wiencek
“We are dealing with something very sacred to people, and that”s their paycheck,” Tallent said.
After a slew of negative feedback surrounding a previous announcement to eliminate spread pay, Provost and Executive Vice President John Wiencek issued a retraction and announced a task force to address the issue. The office announced the finalized task force membership Friday.
Wiencek said the task force will identify if the concerns are legitimate and will present possible solutions – hopefully by February 1.
In early July, the provost”s office sent out an announcement that stated spread pay would be eliminated. Yet, the announcement was left over from Katherine Aiken”s work as interim provost and executive vice president. Wiencek, who had only been in office a few days, did not know anything about the issue.
Tallent said the sudden communication with no faculty input has, and will continue to taint the discussions on spread pay.
“There was a perceived lack of fairness,” Tallent said.
Faculty Senate Chair Randall Teal said the issue of discontinuing spread pay because of legal concerns came up two years ago, but that the administration worked closely with Faculty Senate that time around. This time, he said, there was no such communication.
In a meeting with The Argonaut”s Editorial Board Sept. 30, UI President Chuck Staben said there needed to be more communication surrounding the previous decision.
“Spread pay, you know, we screwed that one up,” Staben said. “It”s pretty obvious, that was poorly communicated.”
Going forward, Staben said he aims to have more effective communication with university employees on the topic of spread pay.
With the task force, Wiencek said he is committed to making sure all information is communicated correctly this time.
Tallent, an associate professor in the School of Journalism and Mass Media, said Wiencek chose her as chair because of her communications background.
Wiencek said legal concerns exist because the spread pay system starts before a faculty member”s contract starts. This means it appears on the books like faculty are being paid in advance. In the case of newly hired faculty, they are actually being paid in advance.
He said that in order to remedy this conflict, spread pay might need to be altered or eliminated altogether. Yet, he said there might not be any need to change the system at all.
“That is what the task force is there to find out,” he said.
Spread pay exists for a variety of reasons. It gives faculty a more stable income and eliminates the trouble of saving money to live off during the summer. Additionally, Wiencek and Tallent said that the academic year is not the only time faculty work.
“Most faculty are really doing activities over the summer that are related to their role as a faculty member,” Wiencek said. “They view their job as –and it is – a 12-month obligation.”
Wiencek said the task force might leave spread pay as it is, alter it or eliminate it. If it is eliminated, Wiencek said the next issue would be how long the transition period should be.
Tallent said that many faculty members – especially those with lower salaries – will have a hard time saving money to make the transition.
Nishant Mohan can be reached at [email protected] or on Twitter @NishantRMohan