STRS...take the hint!

From John Curry, March 12, 2009

OSU freezes pay for top execs, creates 2.5% pool for faculty raises

Thursday, March 12, 2009
By Encarnacion Pyle
THE COLUMBUS DISPATCH

Read the OSU pay memo

See today's new guidelines on compensation at Ohio State University (PDF)

Given the sputtering economy, Ohio State University has decided to freeze the salaries of its top executives but continue to offer modest raises to faculty members.

In a memo to academic leaders last night, Provost Joseph A. Alutto outlined the compensation guidelines for the new fiscal year, which begins July 1.

Deans and department chairs will be given a 2.5 percent pool for raises that they can distribute based on employee performance, as long as budgetary goals are met. As in past years, there will be no minimum or across-the-board raises.

"The compensation process must inspire excellence by rewarding performance and accountability," Alutto wrote in his memo.

Continuing to offer raises is important to reward and retain Ohio State's highest performers, Alutto said.

"Our average faculty salary was at one time in the top third of the (American Association of Universities), and is now near the bottom third, and our staff salaries are on average more than 10 percent below those of competing employers,'' he said. "We must make this limited merit pool a priority."

The university will not raise health-care premiums or recreation fees, as some had feared but will increase parking permits by a little less than 5 percent.

President E. Gordon Gee, Alutto and members of the senior management council will give up salary increases and bonuses for the year. That money will be redirected to student scholarships.

The council includes 17 of Gee's top advisers, including former lawmaker Joyce Beatty, now OSU's senior vice president for outreach and engagement.