Oregon daily emerald., May 31, 2005, Image 1

Track and field qualifiers head to NCAAs I 9
Oregon Daily Emerald
An independent newspaper
unvw.dailyemerald.com
Since 1900 | Volume 106, Issue 166 | Tuesday, May 31, 2005
Lagging faculty salaries threaten academics
Budget limitations have left the
University increasingly unable
to compete for prospective faculty
BY MORIAH BALINGIT
NEWS REPORTER
Maintaining top-notch faculty at the Univer
sity is like running a professional baseball
team, Associate Professor of Physics Stephen
Hsu said
“If you’re trying to run a baseball team and
you can’t pay your free agents what other
teams are paying, you’re going to lose your top
players,” Hsu said.
Average faculty salaries at the University
have long lagged behind those of comparable
institutions, but in recent years, the gap has
been exacerbated.
“Lately we’ve found that all of our compara
tors, and even schools we would consider low
er in prestige, are paying more (than the Uni
versity),” Hsu said.
Some faculty members said the lagging av
erage salary has impacted far more than the
professors’ pockets. It has created challenges
in recruiting new faculty who often get better
offers elsewhere. And it has led to what Hsu
described as a “steady attrition of top people”
from the University.
Other factors that used to keep faculty here,
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University University University University Indiana University of University of University of University of
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(Assistant Professors)
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Bret Furtwangijkr
Graphic artist
such as a top-rate pension program and a low
cost of living, continue to erode, some faculty
said, making it even more challenging to re
cruit and retain faculty.
Chemistry Professor Michael Kellman sug
gested that the University’s priorities are out
of order.
“The University community is working to
ward a world-class arena — and that’s fine —
but does almost nothing about the fact that fac
ulty salaries are at the bottom of the heap,” he
said. “Isn’t there something grotesque about
the sense of priorities?”
University Senior Vice President and
Provost John Moseley said faculty compensa
tion is a top priority for the University, but it’s
only one of many.
“The top priority ... will be to provide a high
quality education for our students,” he said.
RECRUITMENT, page 6
IN BRIEF
University student drowns
at Lake Shasta annual party
A University student drowned Sunday at
Lake Shasta after hitting his head on the
side of a boat moored near Slaughterhouse
Island.
Joel Nathan Meyer, a 21-year-old jour
nalism student from Sisters, Ore., hit his
head on the rail of a houseboat at about
4:40 p.m. Sunday and fell into the lake, ac
cording to a Shasta County Sheriff’s Office
news release. He was taken by helicopter
to Shasta Regional Medical Center in Red
ding and pronounced dead.
University junior Tanner Messner trav
eled with Meyer to Lake Shasta for the an
nual Memorial Day weekend party and
said many people were around when the
accident occurred.
“Before we knew it, we were helpless,”
Messner said.
Messner said he was on a boat near the
one Meyer was on when the accident oc
curred and that a person experienced in scu
ba diving had scuba gear on the boat and
jumped in after Meyer.
“He must have went in as soon as he saw
it happen,” Messner said. “He pulled him
up pretty quick, but it was still a good
15 minutes from what I remember.”
Messner said most everyone on the island
and around the lake knew what had hap
pened within minutes.
“I’m pretty sure the word spread fast
around the whole island,” Messner said.
“The boats were all around; I’m sure every
one knew it was happening. ”
Messner said Meyer will be remembered
for being an energetic and fun-loving guy.
Meyer was crowned Mr. SHS at Sisters
High School in 2002, and his uncle said he
interned for the local paper in Sisters, the
Nugget Newspaper.
His profile on the social networking Web
site Thefacebook.com listed his concentra
tion in school as electronic media and news
editorial journalism.
As of press time more than 20 friends had
posted messages telling Meyer how much
he meant to them and how much he would
be missed.
“Everyone loves him,” Messner said.
— Meghann M. Cuniff
PARTI OF2
Today: Senators reflect
on successes and failures.
Wednesday: Remaining
representatives consider
their terms in office.
The outgoing Student Senators recalled accomplishments, such as
the library's 24/7 finals schedule and changing the stipend model
BY PARKER HOWELL
SENIOR NEWS REPORTER
s new ASUO Student Senators took the
reigns from their predecessors last
X JL week, former members told the Emer
ald their opinions on the Senate’s greatest
achievement this year, what the Senate could
have done differently and what Senators should
do next year.
Although at least 24 students sat on the
18-member Senate over the course of this
year, the Emerald contacted those still on the
Senate as of May 24. Of those students, only
two will return next year.
Mike Sherman, Seat 3
Sherman wrote in an e-mail that the Senate’s
most important decision was approving the in
cidental fee budgets for the Athletic Department
Finance Committee, the EMU Board of Direc
tors and the Programs Finance Committee.
“No other decision made by student govern
ment this year will affect every student as much
as the approval of these budgets,” he wrote.
Sherman also said the budget decision
should have been made differently.
“The Senate and the Executive once again sub
stantially increased the incidental fee. (It) is
hypocrisy at its finest — student leaders voting to
increase their own fees while lobbying the state
legislature for a tuition freeze,” he wrote. “Unfor
tunately, this hypocrisy is not unique to this Sen
ate, but rather has dominated student govern
ment for at least the three years I have been a
senator and likely even longer than this.”
He wrote that the Senate also needs to
address these “exponential increases in the
incidental fee.”
“A general lack of vision and inability to
make tough decisions have prevented student
leaders from addressing this issue,” he wrote.
“If it is not addressed, the incidental fee will
continue to rise and eventually the general
student body, the President of the University,
or the OUS Board will relinquish the power
given to student government to allocate the
incidental fee.”
Sherman said he will be attending University
of California Hastings College of Law next year.
Stephanie Erickson, Seat 5
The Senate’s work with the ASUO Programs
Finance Committee on changing the stipend
model was the most important decision be
cause it affected a lot of programs, Erickson
said. She said the issue will “definitely come up
next year” because the final decision to fund
some stipends using over-realized funds was
“just a one-year thing. ”
“You can’t just take money out like that every
year,” she said.
She also said she wished more Senators
hadn’t dropped out of the Senate early, which
prevented the Senate from passing changes
to its rules because it could not meet quorum
requirements.
“That definitely affected quorum,” she said.
“That’s definitely a thing I hope we’ll do better
next year. ”
Erickson will return to the Senate next year.
James George, Seat 6
George said the Senate’s important decisions
centered on this year’s budget season. He said it
was good that the Senate could act as a voice
for student groups and was able to give some
stipends back. He called the final solution to
use over-realized funds a “drastic measure,”
saying a resolution is needed that is “more than
a quick fix on an Excel spread sheet.”
“This was the year to set the stage for Senate
to be more than just people who sit in the board
room on Wednesday night,” he said.
George said the Senate should make sure all
groups know the Senate can support them, cit
ing help the Senate gave groups through reso
lution outside of the normal budget process.
He said academic senators have done a bet
ter job of defining their roles this year, but
said Senators should continue being visible to
students to ensure they are representing the
student body.
George said he will be moving to Los Angeles
to work at a marketing agency.
Lisa Lam, Seat 8
One of the Senate’s most important actions
was working on securing funding for 24/7 li
brary access, Lam said in an e-mail.
“The senators, especially the academic sena
tors (Sarah Wells and Stephanie Stoll) worked
extremely hard to bring awareness of this issue
and speak to higher administration regarding
the importance of this service,” she wrote.
She wrote that the stipend issue was an “ex
tremely difficult one to make. ”
“Because of the injunctions earlier this year,
everyone was pushed for time, and as a result
no one was happy with the decision,” she
wrote. “This is definitely an issue that next
year’s Senate will have to address.”
Lam wrote she is thinking about going to
graduate school in the next few years, but will
move back to Portland for now.
Kevin Day, Seat 9
Day said the most critical decision had to do
with the stipend model.
“Not many decisions in Senate will affect
that many people at once and change their pro
graming and how they do things,” he said.
He said he would change how the fall finance
retreat and its aftermath were handled.
“1 think there was a better way of doing it,”
he said. “I think individuals escaped personal
punishment and owning up to their wrong de
cisions, such as the letter writing, carrying the
alcohol in the van and smoking the weed. I
think those are the three biggest things that
stood out to me with what happened at the
finance retreat that should never happen at
any retreat.”
Day said he didn’t do anything illegal at
the retreat.
“I don’t think it was fair that I had a burden
on my shoulders as a punishment of mainly a
SENATE, page 8