Hey guys... I was just wondering if we could borrow a cup of

[pissclams]

wow looks like ol'42 has a solid case of tone of posts butthurt

[Kat Kid]

Can definitely confirm what Kat Kid said. The faculty is rough ridin' pissed and want heads rolling. Their compensation is easily lowest in the Big 12 by comparison while admin salaries have skyrocketed.

Ole Kirk responded to the faculty butthurt by not attending the faculty senate meeting today and getting out there and fundraising.

[pissclams]

is this a case of him paying the right people the right amount?  the other losers can kick rocks and go teach at some scrub school?

[steve dave]

I just asked him

[WillieWatanabe]

welp. dis gon be good.

[Kat Kid]

They froze salary.  People writing new job descriptions?  Merit based pay increases?  Yeah those are still around, but don't confuse their existence as some kind of well thought out plan by Kirk.  He thinks buildings, realignment and 2025.  I don't think he's been terrible by any means.  He served his purpose, but it is probably time for him to go.

[Kat Kid]

I just asked him

good summary of the complaints.

[pissclams]

seems that the animal is smart enough to maintain the staff that will help him achieve his K-State 2025 goal.

also, this would indicate that compensation decisions extend beyond his desk.

if i were a betting man, and i am, my guess is we have a good chuck of our facility who are scrubs that have been sitting on their collective asses the past 30 years or whatever and feel as if they're owed something.  because that's just how things have always operated at k-state.  for an illustrative example, refer to our pre-currie athletic dept and how it operated.

[Kat Kid]

seems that the animal is smart enough to maintain the staff that will help him achieve his K-State 2025 goal.

also, this would indicate that compensation decisions extend beyond his desk.

if i were a betting man, and i am, my guess is we have a good chuck of our facility who are scrubs that have been sitting on their collective asses the past 30 years or whatever and feel as if they're owed something.  because that's just how things have always operated at k-state.  for an illustrative example, refer to our pre-currie athletic dept and how it operated.

Yes compensation decisions extend beyond his desk.  That was what I basically said earlier. 

A pro tip:
if you made it all the way to the executive summary of the report of the committee you just cited, the recommendation of his own 2025 committee was to make a large increase (more than 2%) in 2014 to help achieve equality to their peer member institutions by 2018.

http://www.k-state.edu/2025/documents/Faculty-Compensation-Task-Force-Final.pdf

So when he said to the KBOR "yeah we want tuition increases, and we'll also freeze salary bumps again cause you know recession." he pissed a lot of people off.  Beyond the constructive feedback he got from the KBOR mushing his visionary response, you'd think that might be something for him to think about.

[pissclams]

sounds like he's doing all of the right things.  thumbs up to the animal. 

pro tip:  you can't go to the zoo and like every exhibit equally

[0.42]

wow looks like ol'42 has a solid case of tone of posts butthurt

I mean if anything it's a testament to how good of a PI'er steve dave is. Everyone thinks they're being PI'ed even when they aren't. Anyway...

is this a case of him paying the right people the right amount?  the other losers can kick rocks and go teach at some scrub school?

The main issue is keeping the best and brightest faculty on campus. For example, there's one professor in my old department at KSU that's a dynamic up and comer in the field. Plenty of publications and research, an awesome teacher, etc. Not keeping our salaries competitive with other schools pretty much guarantees that we'll lose her as soon as a big timey department (Wisconsin, UCLA, etc.) comes along. If the salaries were more competitive we'd at least have a better shot to keep professors like that as few people really enjoy uprooting themselves and moving across the country and starting the promotion and tenure process over again.

[pissclams]

yes sd pi'd the hell out of you earlier.  it was bloody. 
we will never compete with schools like UCLA for teaching talent

[0.42]

yes sd pi'd the hell out of you earlier.  it was bloody. 

Yeah. Sheesh.

we will never compete with schools like UCLA for teaching talent

Probably not, but it'd be nice to at least not lose good professors to schools who by all rights should be our peers, which is the big potential danger with salaries the way they're at.

[pissclams]

well it's a good thing our fellow wildcat the animal wants to raise salaries

[steve dave]

Don't know anything about that rumor but I do know from an "A+" source that Kirk is being contacted by other schools, is very respected, is under paid compared to his peers, and is frustrated with some of the faculty crap he is getting. He also likes KSU very much. Same source also said Currie is a target but that's not news. They are the best combo team KSU has ever had

"His faculity needs to be paid more, you are only as good as your professors and teachers."

That's exactly what the faculty says and he SAYS but has repeatedly failed to ACT on because he claims the dollars aren't there, while contiunuing to expand his own staff, dramatically increase their pay, and bury his head in the sand.

"That's exactly what the faculty says and he SAYS but has repeatedly failed to ACT on because he claims the dollars aren't there, while contiunuing to expand his own staff, dramatically increase their pay, and bury his head in the sand."

IMO, he's right that the money isn't there. K-State has by far the smallest endowment in the Big 12. There is a reason why our faculty is paid dramatically less than our peers. I don't know anything about growing his staff or how he pays them, so I can't really speak to that.

The faculty needs a wake up call. The economy in the state of Kansas and the rest of the country is just starting to re-cover. Tenure does not entitle one to endless raises and increased benefits. The KSU faculty as well as educators everywhere are not and should not be exempt from the ills of the economy.

please. . .no aware person believes the current Kansas economy and its current tax policy are related.  Kansas' funding "crisis" is 99% self-imposed.  Every state around us INCREASED higher-ed funding this year, some of whom had much worse economic numbers. I don't blame President Schulz one bit if he is listening to overtures from other Universities.  Dealing with the anti-intellectual mouth breathers that are currently in charge of our state government has got to be extremely frustrating. 

If you "don't know anything", educate yourself. Part of it is because I have little faith in the press to report anything anymore. I have had enough personal experience with a few press stories where they just got the facts completely wrong, that I read everything with a healthy dose of skepticism.

It took me literally 30 seconds of a Google search into "Kansas State faculty salaries", to come across link. Pres. Schulz says there's no money for salary increases for his faculty, yet the budget shows a 14% increase for himself between 2012 and 2013. His budget for deans has increase 43% in the last 4 years, and 34% for his administration staff, while faculty has gotten 4%.

To the poster who says the faculty needs a dose of reality, I can sympathize. I'm in the private sector and just now this year, my base salary is still lower than where it was in 2008, and I'm still short a bunch of overtime I once had. But for the University President to say out of one side of his mouth that faculty pay is very important and that he can't increase it because he's been handcuffed by budget issues, and then increase his own budget at 10x the rate of faculty pay, is more than embarrassing.

One of our Deans just left KSU for Ark, same position. Got. $70k raise for a lateral move. His phrase, not mine. He had to accept it. Now, I also believe it is wrong and unsustainable for the public sector to get paid substantially more than the private sector. it's crazy. The private sector are the net producers. The public sector are net consumers. Pay standards are nuts.

Originally posted by gitrdone!:
Don't know anything about that rumor but I do know from an "A+" source that Kirk is being contacted by other schools, is very respected, is under paid compared to his peers, and is frustrated with some of the faculty crap he is getting. He also likes KSU very much. Same source also said Currie is a target but that's not news. They are the best combo team KSU has ever had
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------


LOL.  If it is true that faculty haven't had raises in years (I don't know this, but it has been claimed multiple times on this board)...he deserves every bit of that "crap." 

I think Schulz is a good visionary executive, mostly because he aims high.  But this "faculty crap" is a bed he has made, and if he thinks faculty at a "Top 50 Public Research University" ANYWHERE else would put up with what K-State faculty have had to put up with, he is comically mistaken.  Of course, most faculty Presidents running major universities are funded by the state better than K-State has ever been, so few  have to deal with the issues he has to deal with.  It's a damn shame that you have joined this fight painting faculty as the "bad guy" here, gitrdone!  It reminds me of the kinds of things non-academic staff members at Universities would say.  And if that is happening (a lot) at K-State, then Schulz has either created or fostered a divide-and-conquer, "we vs. they" culture there. 

K-State--and the BoR and Kansas legislators, specifically--should be ashamed for the lack of resources and compensation its faculty is given.  Until it changes (and if Schulz is as unsympathetic to the issue as you have now at least twice suggested, it will take a new Prez to do it), K-State will NOT improve it's academic reputation; indeed, it will have trouble hanging on the best of what it currently has. 

it goes on

[Mikeyis4dcats]

not defending the Animal, but they should probably take into account that the Animal's contract probably stipulated certain performance incentives and admin requirements.

[Asteriskhead]