December 15

TACT's friend Texas Comptroller Carole Keeton Rylander released a report yesterday calling for additional investment in Texas higher education. "It's high time we stopped shortchanging our future," Rylander said. "This report clearly shows that money spent on higher education is well spent." Rylander's report stopped short of recommending to the Legislature a specific funding increase level, but calculated an economic multiplier of 5 for each dollar spent in higher education. Just last week TACT wrote to Rylander's chief deputy, Billy Hamilton, requesting advice for implementing the legislative intent of funding intended for faculty salary increases.

October 27

TACT Legislative Committee Chair Faye Thames traveled to Austin Thursday to attend the meeting of the Lt. Governor's Special Commission on 21st Century Colleges and Universities. The meeting was noncontroversial, or, as one wag stated, "The more these people learn about higher education, the more they agree with the Coordinating Board, which does understand higher education." The conversation was primarily to wordsmith staff-developed language prior to a first draft document scheduled for adoption November 13. Elements will include doubling the TEXAS Grant scholarship program, supporting the coordinating Board's "Closing the Gaps" and the usual access, equity and excellence. Coincidentally, Chair Thames ran into her state senator and university president (both TACT Members) who expressed their appreciation for her - and TACT's - diligence in monitoring these developments. TACT will distribute highlights of the draft proposal when it is available and will formally comment to the Commission regarding its recommendations. On a related subject, the Coordinating Board adopted its "Closing the Gaps" with an ambitious goal of increasing student enrollment by 50 percent by the year 2015. TACT staff contacted an influential member of the media pointing out that a 50 percent increase in the number of faculty members, in order to maintain existing student/faculty ratios, means a net increase of more than 24,000 faculty, a difficult goal considering our uncompetitive salaries and defined contribution retirement plan.

October 3

UT-Austin President Larry Faulkner has joined with several other university presidents in expressing skepticism toward a recent proposal to test all college students with standardized exams specific to their majors. Among his concerns were the cost and the difficulty in matching the exam content to the ever-changing curricula. Further information on this issue will be presented by TACT Regional Vice President Frank Fair during the October 14 Fall House of Delegates Meeting. Also to be presented to the Delegates will be the results of an Open Records Act request by TACT to the Legislative Budget Board regarding the average faculty salary increases on each campus as of September 1, 2000. Additional meeting information and an agenda can be found at www.tact.org, Meetings.

September 19

TACT testified today at the House Higher Education Committee that the recently adopted university budgets reflected differences of understanding about whether the Comptroller's 3% salary measure was to be replacement or supplemental funding. TACT reported that the Comptroller and Senate Finance Committee Chair have indicated that their intention was that the 3% would supplement what the institutions would otherwise provide for salary increases.

TACT met last week with the Deputy Comptroller and promised to report the institutions' average increases upon the completion of the schools' Legislative Appropriations Requests.

September 13

The educational program of the TACT Fall Leadership Conference is confirmed. Highlights include:

Friday, October 13, 2000

1:00 PM University of North Texas Chancellor Alfred Hurley discusses the legislative priorities of the Council of University Chancellors and Presidents
2:00 PM AAUP Government Relations Director Ruth Flower outlines higher education issues in Congress and other states
3:00 PM TACT State Board Meeting
6:00 PM Networking Reception
7:00 PM Banquet with guest speaker Dr. John Opperman, executive director of the Lt. Governor's Special Commission on 21st Century College and Universities


Saturday, October 14, 2000

8:30 AM Panel discussion on "seamless" K-16 education
9:30 AM TACT House of Delegates Meeting
12:00 PM Adjourn

You may pay the registration fees at the door. Registration is $30 and includes 1 packet of materials and 1 banquet ticket. Additional banquet tickets may be purchased for $15 each. Reserve your sleeping rooms at the Four Points Hotel (NW corner of IH-35 and US 183) by calling 512-836-8520. Room reservations should be made no later than September 29 and should be made under group code TACT.

This conference is graciously sponsored by the Variable Annuity Life Insurance Company (VALIC)

September 6

Below are excerpts from a letter to TACT from Texas Comptroller Carole Keeton Rylander confirming TACT's position on the 3% supplemental faculty salary increase.

"Your reading of this provision is absolutely correct. When I proposed this funding and located the general revenue to finance it, my intent was to raise the bar on faculty pay, not replace existing university spending. My argument to the legislative leadership and Governor Bush was that we needed to ensure that Texas colleges and universities retain quality teachers and keep pace with national salary trends."

"To be precise, the institutions were given the flexibility to distribute the salaries based on merit. To me that means the pay raise was to be over and above any across-the-board pay raises. I believe that you are taking the correct approach to discuss this with key members of the Legislature. My office will also be happy to work with you to make sure that my original intent -- and the Legislature's -- is met."

August 31

The Education Subcommittee of the House Appropriations Committee met today regarding three higher education issues:

1. Performance criteria, particularly student retention
2. Administrative salary policies
3. Reforming Higher Education through Statewide Examinations

Although testimony was by invitation only, Chairman Henry Cuellar announced from the dais that faculty were represented (meaning the TACT lobbyist rather than the Systems' Chancellors). Another committee member suggested that a partial solution to the public school teacher shortage and the poor preparation of entering college freshmen is for college faculty to teach the Advanced Placement high school courses.

Item 3 above refers to TEATH, the Texas Excellence through Assessment of Teaching in Higher Education. It was generally not well received by the Committee Members. Details of the proposal may be found on page 12 of the most recent TACT Quarterly Bulletin.

August 24

TACT testified Thursday at the Capitol during presentation of the Legislative Appropriation Request regarding the Optional Retirement Program. The Coordinating Board had requested a 4% increase for the 2002-2003 biennium based upon 1% participation growth and 3% salary increases. TACT suggested 3% salary increases may not be sufficient following the Comptroller certifying an EXTRA 3% for FY 2001.

Additionally, TACT suggested that the Legislature should appropriate 7.31% of salary for the employer contribution to all ORP participants and that institutions should be permitted to supplement the employer contribution up to 8.5% for all participants.

August 14

TACT President Allen Martin met Friday with Senator Bill Ratliff, Chairman of the Senate Finance Committee. The discussion involved whether the Comptroller-certified 3 percent faculty salary increase was to replace or supplement the traditional 3 percent annual increases. Senator Ratliff indicated that the new money is supplemental and that the Legislative Budget Board will review the increases that actually take place. TACT argues that the average salary increases should be at least 6 percent for the fiscal year beginning September 1, 2000.

August 11

The following letter to the editor may be used as a model when you learn what the average salary increases will be on your campus.

August 10, 2000
Letter to the Editor
Austin American-Statesman
Fax: 512-912-5927

Dear Editor,

I am pleased that the budgets of the University of Texas System and the University of Texas at Austin will grow next year by 6.1 percent and 6.7 percent, respectively. I am pleased that UT-Austin non-teaching support staff will receive average 6 percent raises. They have been woefully underpaid.

I am displeased that some of the additional expenditures will be funded by increased student tuition and fees, even if they are still relatively low by national standards. And I am particularly displeased that faculty salaries at UT-Austin will rise only 4 percent on average following an unprecedented legislative appropriation increase to higher education PLUS the Comptroller-certified EXTRA 3 percent to be used only for faculty salaries. Does this mean that if the extra 3 percent had not been certified, increases would have averaged 1 percent?

Another opportunity is being lost to close the salary gaps between Texas and other states.

Sincerely,

Chuck Hempstead
Executive Director
512-496-9515

August 2

Congratulations to the Wichita Falls Times Record News -- they get it! (And not coincidentally, the paper is located in the same city as TACT's second largest chapter.)

A July 30 editorial was titled "Below-Average Salaries -- Texas College Faculty Deserve a Pay Hike." It quoted local State Senator Tom Haywood promising faculty salary legislation beginning in January.

The editorial concludes with, "Clearly, we are not keeping pace even with the average. And don't we want to have above-average teachers in college and university classrooms? Lower-than-average pay will inevitably drive top-notch faculty to other states where the pay is average or better. In addition, if we pay lower-than-average salaries, we cannot expect to fill classrooms with better-than-average teachers. Last legislative go-round, lawmakers made sure to give our public school teachers a boost in pay (not enough, but that's another story). This go-round, faculty in our colleges and universities need a boost."

July 31st

The Texas Higher Education Coordinating Board recently released a survey called "Faculty Turnover and Retention: A Summary of Faculty Exit Surveys at Texas Public Universities, Health-Related Institutions and Technical Colleges -- Fiscal Year 1999." Among the findings was an overall 6 percent turnover rate among tenured and tenure-track faculty, a figure deemed healthy and acceptable, though no attempt was made to determine if departing faculty were the "best" faculty.

Thirty-five percent of terminations were for retirement. Among non-retirement terminations, the most frequent response for leaving was professional advancement, followed by compensation, working conditions, and personal reasons. The total of benefits and compensation as the primary responses accounted for over 20 percent of the total responses. The study is available at http://www.thecb.state.tx.us/divisions/finance/finance.htm

July 17th

A recent newspaper article from Atlanta quotes a new report from the Southern Regional Education Board that the faculty salary gap in Southern states continues to widen compared with the rest of the nation, and that Texas fell from fifth (5) to seventh (7) among the sixteen (16) Southern states.

The author of the study blames larger enrollment growth in the South for diverting salary dollars to student services. The study reported a 1.1 percent loss of purchasing power in Texas when the average salaries were adjusted for inflation over a 10-year period.

July 13th

Today the Coordinating Board outlined the first draft of its year-long, long-range planning effort called "Closing the Gaps: Participation, Success, Excellence, Research." It is not yet available on the Coordinating Board's web site, but will be soon at www.thecb.state.tx.us.

A number of TACT's suggestions submitted in writing last February are contained in the initial proposal, which will now be circulated for comment before final adoption, probably in October. Examples of TACT's input adopted include: maintaining academic quality; increasing research grants, particularly from the federal government; and tuition increases must be balanced by additional scholarships and loans.

You are encouraged to comment on the plan either directly to the Coordinating Board or submit your ideas to the TACT State Office for consideration prior to the Association's official response.

June 14th

Several TACT members have asked for the legislative language authorizing the 3 percent faculty salary increase in the second year of the biennium beginning September 1, 2000. It is found on page IX-80 (Sec. 9-11.06(i)) of the General Appropriations Act adopted by the Texas Legislature in May 1999 and reads as follows.

"Faculty Salary Increase. After and contingent upon the Comptroller providing notice to the Legislative Budget Board regarding a finding of fact by the Comptroller of Public Accounts (at the time of certification or after certification of this Act) that sufficient revenue is estimated to be available from the General Revenue Fund and special funds, and following approval by the Legislative Budget Board, there is hereby appropriated to the Comptroller of Public Accounts such amounts as may be available from the General Revenue Fund to finance a salary increase of not more than 3 percent, including related fringe benefit costs, for the fiscal year beginning September 1, 2000, for faculty of institutions of higher education. Allocation of such General Revenue amounts as may be available shall be made as approved by the Legislative Budget Board. It is the intent of the Legislature that each institution utilizing the additional General Revenue funds shall finance the overall faculty salary increase proportionally from both General Revenue and any other available funding sources in the same manner prescribed by the Sec. 9-6.11, "Salaries to be Proportional by Fund" provision in the Act, or other applicable law. Such salary increases shall be awarded in accordance with the special provisions of Article III of this Act relating to merit requirements for faculty of higher education, and shall not be awarded on an across-the-board percentage basis. The funds available under this provision shall be utilized only for the purpose of salary increases. All general academic, technical colleges, services agencies, and medically related components shall be included, however community/junior colleges are not included in this provision."

June 13th

The electronic version of the Chronicle of Higher Education contained a short review of an Andrew Ross article in "Social Text" about the academic labor market.

Humanities scholars who face a tight job market or low pay are the victims of a set of attitudes that evolved during the 20th century in unexpected ways, writes Andrew Ross, an editor of the journal and a professor of American Studies at New York University. "Academics have failed to look out for their own interests, a sizable percentage of whom now earn compensation at or near the poverty line," Mr. Ross writes. In the same essay, he explores the impact of ideals -- in the arts and in academe -- in which workers are "willing to discount the price of their labor for the love of their craft." The results here, too, Mr. Ross writes, has been the academic and artistic workers have seen their economic status eroded.

While blasting administrators for taking advantage of scholars, he also urges the professorate to rethink its own assumptions. Higher education, Mr. Ross writes, is "responsible for reproducing the discounted labor force among the next generation of knowledge workers. Are we contributing involuntarily to the problem when, as educators, we urge students, in pursuing their career goals, to place principles of public interest or collective political agency or creative expression aboue the pursuit of material security?"

While you are staying abreast of your specialty and passing along your knowledge to your students, TACT is fighting for your rights and economic well being.

Pass this along to a colleague who should be participating in the costs and benefits of TACT.

May 10th

TACT President-elect Larry King attended the recent meeting of the Lt. Governor's 21st Century Commission on the campus of Stephen F. Austin State University and forwarded the following observations:

The first presentation to the commission by Dr. John Yopp, Vice-President of Graduate and Professional Education or Educational Testing Service (ETS), was rather benign. Dr. Yopp presented information about the uses and abuses of standardized testing in higher education admissions.

The second presentation to the commission by Dr. David England, President, North Lake Community College, dealt with accountability standards for community colleges.

The third presentation to the commission was made by Drs. Robert Koons and Daniel Bonevac, UT Austin Professors of Philosophy. They propose the establishment of the Texas Excellence through Assessment of Teaching in Higher Education (TEATH) program for reforming higher education through state-wide examinations. The program would require graduating college students to take, but not pass, the GRE Subject Exams and the ETS Major Field Tests. The score on the tests would be posted to the students' transcript. Koons and Bonevac state, "Each program in state-supported schools will evaluate each course, each instructor, and each course-instructor combination by means of calculating the differential contribution each makes to the value added by instruction. It will be possible to determine with some precision what effect each course has had on the exam results of the students who have taken it. It will also be possible to determine the instructional value added by each course, by controlling for the SAT scores and high school grades of students in question." They added that these scores could be used by the legislature and the coordinating board in making decisions on institutional and program funding, and by parents and students in making decisions about which institution to attend. From the positive reaction of Jim Adams, the Commission Chair, and a few other members of the commission, it appears likely that the commission will recommend some system of state-wide testing for graduating or upper-level college students.

The fourth presentation to the commission was made by several students at the George Bush School of Government and Public Service at Texas A&M. Their report focused on ways to improve access to higher education in Texas.

May 10th

The May 9 Austin American-Statesman included a letter to the editor from TACT's executive director Chuck Hempstead thanking Texas Comptroller Carole Keeton Rylander and the Legislature for facilitating an extra three percent, merit-based faculty salary increase for the next fiscal year beginning in September.

TACT leaders on each campus should be diligent that this new money isn't used as a replacement for previously planned raises next academic year.

May 4th

TACT submitted written and oral testimony today to the Senate Finance Subcommittee on ERS and TRS employee benefits. Among TACT's suggestions regarding the Optional Retirement Program (ORP) were that the State should appropriate an additional $10.4 million during the next biennium plus eliminate the appropriation rider restricting institutions from supplementing certain ORP participants up to 8.5 percent of salary.

Though only two Senators were present, Chairman Ogden entertained several speakers who discussed the differences between defined benefit and defined contribution plans, and he said that he would take TACT's suggestions under advisement.

April 27th

The TACT State Office was contacted today by a reporter with the Houston Chronicle for our opinion of the State Comptroller's announcement that an additional 3 percent merit salary increase will be available for the second year of this biennium.

We said that while we would probably prefer an across-the-board increase, since Texas salaries are the lowest of the ten most populous states, we appreciate that the economy permits the increase and that the legislature prefers merit increases in higher education.

March 23rd

The March 22 Austin American-Statesman included an article by Mary Ann Roser, who spoke during our recent conference, about K-16, or "seamless education." It included a veiled reference to our conference and an interesting quote:

State Representative Rob Junell, chairman of the budget-writing House Appropriations Committee, said when some professors asked him about K-16 last month, he told them: "I don't think we're going to fund anything like that. That's is the first I've heard of it."

Junell, a San Angelo Democrat, said that although he is open to discussing K-16, he wants to know specifically how Texas would benefit. "I'm not opposed to it, but somebody's going to have to make their case," he said.

At the same time, Junell is skeptical of higher education's motives. "They don't do anything unless there's more money in it for them," he said. "I'm sure there's a hefty price tag."

The full article can be found at www.austin360.com, Austin American-Statesman, March 22, 2000.

On another issue, yesterday I visited with two Senators and the staffs of three others who comprise the Senate Finance Subcommittee that will consider ORP issues next month. We are asking them to include an extra $10.2 million in ORP appropriations next biennium to bring the state contribution for those hired since 1995 from 6 to 7.31 percent of salary. Also, we are asking them to remove the rider that presently prohibits the institutions from supplementing the state appropriation up to 8.5 percent of salary. The Senators to be contacted at this time on this issue are Steve Ogden, chair, Gonzalo Barrientos, Mario Gallegos, Jon Lindsay and John Carona.

March 13th

TACT Public Relations Committee Member Dr. Thomas G. Palaima had a guest editorial published in today's Austin American-Statesman which referenced the recent TACT conference and its two legislative guests: Senator Royce West and Representative Rob Junell. He compared the excellent discussion between faculty and legislators at the conference with the unfortunate and controversial cancellation of a speech by Dr. Henry Kissinger at UT-Austin. The full text of the guest editorial can be found at www.austin360.com. Go to Austin American-Statesman for Monday, March 13; click editorial, then "Free Speech and Higher Education."

February 1st

TACT representatives met with Senator Steve Ogden this morning to seek his support for increasing the State contribution to ORP participants hired since September 1995. Senator Ogden chairs the Interim Senate Finance subcommittee reviewing retirement issues. At this time, his orientation is that if 6 percent of salary is sufficient for TRS, it is sufficient for ORP, though he didn't close the door on removing the prohibition for institutions to use other funds to supplement the 6 percent appropriation. He said he needs to be shown why a special group of people -- college professors -- should be treated more advantageously than other state employees.

TACT is gathering examples of recruiting and retention stories where retirement contribution levels were problematic and would appreciate your contributions.