A forthcoming report on the salaries of Syracuse University faculty members will detail how gender pay inequities exist across certain schools and colleges at the university, SU Vice Chancellor and Provost Michele Wheatly said at Wednesday’s University Senate meeting.

The report, which Wheatly said will be released to the university community sometime after Thanksgiving Break and before the end of the semester, is the result of the work of the 18-member Faculty Salary Review Committee. The committee was created last fall and tasked with reviewing the average salary of faculty members across faculty rank, gender and schools and colleges. The report outlines the committee’s findings and makes recommendations based on those findings.

Wheatly said Wednesday that the report highlights issues of gender pay inequity in several schools on campus, something she said she found concerning.

The report’s findings also reveal that the number of faculty of color “in many units” is small, Wheatly said. The committee was unable to publish findings for some of those units, Wheatly said, because of confidentiality concerns for those faculty of color.

Wheatly added, though, that the average salaries of faculty of color “generally do not raise the concerns as are raised by the gender demographics.”

After the report is made public, individual deans will review the findings for their schools and colleges and work with the Office of the Provost to make “appropriate adjustments,” Wheatly said.

The report will come about three years after SU first opted to not share the data compiled in the Committee Z report, a public record that compared average faculty salaries across gender, schools and colleges and other factors. SU Chancellor Kent Syverud, at the time, cited legal concerns as the reason the university stopped sharing that data.

Syverud said during Wednesday’s Senate meeting that he hasn’t had time to compare the upcoming report’s findings with the type of data that used to be available through the Z report. But he added that the new report’s data “will be helpful” and “fairly comprehensive.”

Other business

Archbold renovations timeline

Renovations to SU’s Archbold Gymnasium, part of the Campus Framework plan, will begin by January and be completed by the summer of 2019, Syverud said Wednesday.

SU’s full Board of Trustees met on campus last week and approved the proposed renovation and expansion of the gymnasium, Syverud said. The chairman of the Board of Trustees, Steven Barnes, donated $5 million to the renovation project in June.

The renovations will turn the gym into “The Arch,” the university’s new health and wellness center that will include an additional 7,000 square feet of space. New features will include a training swimming pool, extra basketball courts, a rock climbing wall and other facilities for indoor sports.

SU Vice President and Chief Facilities Officer Pete Sala will share “tentative arrangements” with the campus community after Thanksgiving Break that will detail which parts of the gymnasium will remain open during renovations, Syverud said.

Cuomo to dedicate NVRC

New York state Gov. Andrew Cuomo will be on campus at some point in the coming weeks “to celebrate the site dedication” of the National Veterans Resource Complex, Syverud said.

A state grant awarded as part of Cuomo’s Upstate Revitalization Initiative covered about $12.5 million in project costs for the $62.5 million NVRC. The NVRC will serve as the hub for veterans life at SU, which will be home to the Institute for Veterans and Military Families.

Like Archbold Gymnasium, construction of the NVRC will begin in January. The complex will be open in January 2020.

LGBT motion tabled again

For the second consecutive meeting, a vote was tabled on a motion to change the name of the Senate Committee on LGBT Concerns. The motion calls for the committee’s name to be changed to the Committee for Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, Queer and Asexual (LGBTQA) Justice and Advocacy in an effort to “more accurately reflect the work of the committee,” the motion states.

The motion also calls for an amendment to the section of the Senate bylaws that details the charge of the committee. Currently, those bylaws state that the committee focuses on “improving the campus climate for LGBT faculty members, staff members, and students,” and the committee “will concern itself with education of campus leaders about LGBT issues and facilitation of public dialogue on LGBT issues.”

The motion calls for that section of the bylaws to instead state that the committee focuses on improving the campus climate for students, staff and faculty “who hold historically marginalized genders and sexualities”; advocating for changes in university policy and practices; educating campus leaders about LGBTQA+ issues; and “facilitating public dialogue on intersectional queer and transgender issues.”

A report from the committee, made public last month, underscored issues affecting LGBTQ campus life and called for increased resources to be allocated to the LGTBQ campus community.

Published on November 8, 2017 at 11:26 pm

Contact Michael: mdburk01@syr.edu