|
Faculty
Senate Beat
Over half of SPA
workers
at or below same pay grade
Sean
Oakley - Staff Writer
Of the 1,128 State
Personnel Act (SPA) staff employees at Appalachian State University, 651
fall in or below the Grade 61 pay scale, said Staff Council Chair Peggy
Ellis.
According to Human Resources Director Len Johnson, the breakdown for that
grade is divided into four sections:
• The hiring rate is $21,219, the minimum rate is $22,251, the mid-point
rate is $27,391 and the maximum rate is $33,562. That means 651 of the
1,128 Appalachian SPA staff members could make a maximum of $33,562 a
year.
• For the Grade 50 pay scale, the hiring rate is $16,957, the minimum
rate is $17,692, the mid-point rate is $19,284 and the maximum rate is
$21,611.
In accordance with state law, all state employee positions must fall under
one of these grades.
The lowest pay grade in North Carolina is 50, followed by grade scales
in increments of one that build to the state’s highest pay grade
of 96, said Johnson.
The highest grade for a position at Appalachian is 84, he said.
According to statistics provided by Ellis, 273 Appalachian auxiliary staff
members work at or below the grade 50 pay scale, 135 staff members are
currently at grade 50, 14 staff members work at Grade 51 and 17 staff
members fall under Grade 52.
The majority of positions at grade 50 are principally housekeeping, while
most of the grounds workers fall into the grade 56 pay scale, said Johnson.
Another financial problem faced by staff members was last year’s
30 percent increase in state employee insurance premiums, said Ellis.
While the state did pick up the increase for state employees covered by
an individual’s plan, it did not provide monetary assistance with
any increase amounts generated by children or other family members those
employees had added to their respective plans, said Johnson.
For example, before last year’s 30 percent increase, the premium
payment for an employee family plan was $280. After the increase, the
premium went up to $365, an $80-per-month rise.
“Some families had to drop their coverage,” said Ellis. “Some
had to drop their child’s coverage.”
Staff salaries have been a focal point of discussion since Chancellor
Francis T. Borkowski proposed a $150 tuition hike to help bolster staff
salaries.
During a conference call last Friday, the University Board of Trustees
approved the administration’s proposal on the condition Borkowski
would give them an implementation plan at the body’s March 22 meeting.
However, that presentation
will come after the proposal faces its next hurdle—a University of
North Carolina Board of Governors vote March 6. The N.C. General Assembly
has final say on tuition rates at all state-supported schools. Should
both the BOG and the legislature approve the plan, the tuition increase
would go into effect next fall.
Many staff members need a second job to support themselves, said Ellis.
“I saw two staff people yesterday working at a second job,”
she said.
“Some people say they even have a third job,” said Johnson,
though he said there was no way of knowing exactly what percent of staff
members actually have a second job.
The plight of some staff members is far worse than second jobs or insurance
problems, said Ellis.
“To hear that staff members have to go to the Hospitality House,
it’s really disgusting,” said Ellis.
Multicultural
Beat
Leach focuses
on arts, civil rights
David
Forbes - Staff Writer
Celebration of the
Black Arts, including dance, music and art focusing on African-American
culture, took place Monday night in Plemmons Student Union.
The event featured music, dance and a monologue by Appalachian students,
as well as the art of Randy Leach. Leach was an Appalachian State University
art major who graduated last year and is currently pursuing a master’s
degree at East Carolina University.
Leach’s work focuses on civil rights issues and figures both past
and present, including Rosa Parks, the Freedom Riders, racial profiling
of African Americans by the police and Black Nationalism.
“I try to bring art and civil rights together,” said Leach.
“I see my work going towards unity; cultural pride is what makes
us unique. I hope to bring that together to be more political in the future.”
Also featured were students Willie Lewis and Gerald Foreman performing
improvisational jazz and “Amazing Grace” on the soprano sax
and flugelhorn. “We just played our interpretation of jazz,”
said Lewis.
The Appalachian State chapter of the National Association for Advancement
of Colored People (NAACP) and the Alpha Kappa Alpha sorority sponsored
the event, held in the Blue Ridge Ballroom, as part of the campus events
for Black History Month.
“This was just to celebrate the arts, acknowledge what we have offered,
what we continue to offer,” said Aisha Little, vice president and
programming chair for Alpha Kappa Alpha, who worked with the NAACP in
planning the dance, monologue and music.
“This was something fun, not so political, no so educational,”
said Tiffany Fant, president of the NAACP. “We were hoping for a
better turnout, but we were competing with other events.”
“This was a real homecoming for me,” said Leach.
“This was one of the last programs [for Black History Month]. It
encompassed all aspects,” said Fant. “Though I wish the university
had been more supportive and more organizations had gotten involved.”
SGA
Beat
Conference to
focus on leadership
Sarah Newell -
Staff Writer
This year’s
annual Women’s Leadership Conference, co-sponsored by the Appalachian
State University Women’s Center and the Center for Student Involvement
and Leadership (CSIL), will be held March 2 from 12 - 7 p.m. in Plemmons
Student Union.
Through workshops and speakers, the conference will focus on women achieving
more leadership roles.
Session topics will include leadership in uncommon ways, leading in opposition,
incorporating gender role and self-efficacy into women’s career decision-making
and putting the pieces together.
The fee for the conference is $8 for students and $10 for non-students.
The registration fee includes dinner. Registration forms and fees are
due by Friday to the CSIL office on the second floor of Plemmons Student
Union.
There will be a contact table set up in the union this week from 10 a.m.-2
p.m. where registration forms can be picked up or dropped off.
Call the CSIL office at 262-6252 for more information.
Special
Report
Business
Affairs Beat
SPA salary
hike allocation plan
still a mystery
Housekeepers,
maintenance crews
at center of effort to set distribution plan
Carrie Baker
- Staff Writer
Guidelines for
allocating funds that would be generated by a proposed $150 tuition
increase still have not yet been finalized, but the focus will be
placed on the school’s lowest-income employees, said Jane Helm,
vice chancellor for Business Affairs.
“It is hard to say who would receive a salary increase,”
said Helm, referring to the 1,128 staff members who fall under the
State Personnel Act and are paid through state-allocated dollars.
University officials plan to examine recent promotions and current
salaries as an allocation plan for the proposed tuition hike monies
is finalized, said Helm.
Housekeeping, maintenance and administrative assistant positions are
among those positions that fall in the lowest-income bracket at the
institution, said Len Johnson, human resources director.
“What constitutes lowest pay and who will be affected are the
big questions,” said Johnson.
While specifics on the distribution plan have yet to be ironed out,
Helm and Johnson both expressed concerns that low salaries are contributing
to problems hiring and retaining the aforementioned types of employees.
“In exit interviews, [of those employed five years or less] the
most frequent reason cited for leaving is compensation,” said
Johnson.
“[The] campus police department is an example of an area losing
employees due to pay,” said Helm.
She pointed to a recent hike in starting pay for Watauga County and
Town of Boone police officers as a major reason for the loss of campus
police employees and recruits.
“We recently lost a recruit to this very reason,” said Helm.
Appalachian State officials crafted the $150 tuition increase proposal
in an attempt to generate funds to provide salary increases some of
the university’s SPA employees.
The University Board of Trustees approved the proposal by a 9-2 margin
during a conference call vote Friday. The plan now moves on to the
docket of the University of North Carolina Board of Governors.
That body will either approve or kill the proposal at its March 6
meeting.
The N.C. General Assembly has final say on tuition rates at all 16
state-supported colleges.
While the proposal must still garner the approval of those two bodies,
the cost of employee medical insurance is also a concern, said Helm.
This year medical insurance prices rose above the “very modest
salary increase” of SPA employees, said Helm.
State medical insurance coverage is $84.32 per month, over $1,000
for family coverage, said Helm.
Only 136 full-time SPA employees at Appalachian are covered by the
state medical insurance, said Helm.
Helm also said she is concerned those not covered cannot afford the
insurance payments due to their low salaries.
“We don’t know if these families [not covered by state medical
insurance] are covered by a spouse’s plan or are unable to afford
coverage.”
The university currently has a total of 1,064 full time SPA employees,
said Helm.
Police
Beat
Officers:
Pay hike needed, overdue
Thirty-two
police staffers fall under SPA classification
Becky
DiVerniero - Staff Writer
University police
officers say their current salaries do not adequately cover the cost
of living and are not comparable to wages earned by officers at other
University of North Carolina system institutions.
“Most staff that work for the university, if they didn’t
have some other financial foothold, would not be able to buy property
in the county,” said Patrol Officer Thomas R. Black. “Property
value is so high and pay has not kept up with it.”
Since Watauga County has the third-highest cost of living in the state,
some employees find it hard to make ends meet, said Black.
Five officers have left the University Police Department to pursue
different opportunities, said Sgt. Phil Minton.
“[The pay rate] definitely made a difference,” said Minton.
“It was one of the factors [of their leaving]. Salary is the
number one thing on your mind when you are trying to pay bills.”
The Board of Trustees voted last Friday to approve a $150 tuition
increase proposal that would be used to bolster the salaries of some
staff employees who fall under the State Personnel Act. A total of
32 university police department staffers are SPA employees.
If the increase is approved by the BOG at its March 6 meeting and
signed off on by the N.C. General Assembly, in-state tuition will
rise $599 since fall 2000—a 71.4 percent increase, which does
not include a proposed 4.8 percent statewide hike.
The current average staff salary is $19,721 after taxes, barely above
the poverty level for a family of four. Appalachian State University
SPA employees are paid less than surrounding schools, said Minton.
“This side of the state hasn’t kept up with pay raises,”
said Minton.
For example, the current starting salary for public safety officers
at the University of North Carolina at Wilmington is $7,000 higher
than Appalachian offers.
“We have the same job description, do the same job within the
state, for the state, for the university system, and there shouldn’t
be any disparity as far as pay,” said Black.
Other state positions, such as probation and highway patrol, are given
equal pay within North Carolina.
“Any state law enforcement job is paid the same throughout the
state, but [the University Police are] not,” said Black.
Salaries within the county differ also, said Patrol Officer Jason
Church. “The Boone Police and the Sheriff’s Department make
$5,000-$7,000 more than we do,” said Church. “We would just
like it to be across the board.”
The salary increase, if approved, should have been given by the state,
said Church.
“I think we should have received a raise a long time ago,”
he said.
As for students paying for the salary increase, there are mixed feelings,
said Minton.
“It’s the state’s responsibility, but I don’t
see any other way,” said Minton. “If you want to keep good
employees, you have to pay a good wage.”
Church, however, completely disagrees with the increase.
“I would love to get an increase in pay, but not at the expense
of the students.”
|
 |
 |
