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March 10, 1998
Volume 21 Number 9
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Administrators reluctant to detail errors in faculty equity pay model
Rachael Hill
Managing Editor
An exercise designed to bring many faculty salaries closer to nalionai aver¬ ages has backfired for UTSA's admin¬ istration. Although mulliple mistakes werc made in the creation ofthe model, ils author. Dr. Terri Leal, has been uncooperative in sharing details with the faculty senate or the Paisano.
Last spring, UTSA sel out to creaie a model ihat would help to eliminate inequities in faculty salaries. Provost Ray Garza, who oversees faculty sala¬ ries, along with the faculty senate, se¬ lected an ad hoc faculty committee charged wilh creating a standard on which lo base faculty raises.
Dr, Walter Richardson, associate professor in the division of mathemat¬ ics and statistics and UTSA's faculty senate chair, gives credit to the admin¬ istration for attempting to make up for
Progressive party sweeps student govt, elections
Gary Wright
Editor
For the third straight year, UTSA's student government spring elections were dominaled by a single group run¬ ning on one tickel. Eric Denton and the Progressive party won all four execu¬ tive seals in this year's election.
Denton won the president's posi¬ tion over Melanie Cepieda with 55.4 percent of the vote. Other win¬ ners were Christi Mendoza, vice president; Xochie Yanez, treasurer;- and Johanna Hill, corresponding secretary.
Cepeda feels there is a definite advantage to running on a ticket. "I was only able to represent myself in one place at a time, while Eric (Denton) was able to be represented in four places at a time," said Cepeda.
Denton agrees, "With any party you have a group working toward a com¬ mon goal-any individual is going to lose to a team, in anything you do."
Denton said his party is based on the premise that UTSA needs loevolve. "We (UTSA) have been a commuter college for a long time," said Denton. "I Ihink we'reatapoint now where we need lo become more of a four-year university.
"People come here then transfer to UT Ausiin, Southwest Texas, or .some¬ where else to graduate," Denlon con¬ tinued. "The student life just isn't re¬ ally here; we need to give student a reason to want to stay at UTSA."
Many ofthe goals Denton is setting for his term revolve around greater communication between student gov¬ ernment and the student body they represent. "Students pay money every semesler that goes to pay for student government, and no one knows what student government does," Denton
Continued on page 3
Eric Den; jn- resident
salary inequities, but has become frus¬ trated with how the equity exercise was conducted and with how mistakes made are being handled.
Many factors contribute to salary variances among faculty, including market forces and gender, as well as a phenomenon known as compression. When faculty members are hired, they are given set salaries based on the market and on their leaching disci¬ plines. Over the years, faculty are eligible for merit raises, which, ac¬ cording to Garza, are never enough to keep up with the market. So newly hired faculty are brought in at higher salaries than those of existing faculty who may have been at UTSA for years.
The committee's model was based on faculty perfonnance ratings and salary comparisons with similar insti¬ tutions across the country. What hap¬ pened next puzzled many who werc involved in the exercise.
"They had five weeks to develop this linear regression model, and at the end of that lime, the repori that the
lutional analysis," .said Richardson.
Dr. Leal, executive director of as¬ sessment and institutional analysis was
"/ sent a letter to the president (Samuel Kirkpatrick), and I told him 7 want to meet with you to discuss this model. I find the model to be drastically flawed.' And then I asked him to meet with me to avoid further embarrassment and legal problems. This model cannot be defended in court. They will find no statistician who will stand up and say thisis fine."
"Alvaro Arias, associate professor in the division of mathematics and statistics
committee came up with was essen¬ tially ignored and the whole problem then turned over lo the office of insti-
assij;ncd lo create a new model. Leal declined thc Paisano's request for an interview unless a list of queslions
was submitted to her in advance, how¬ ever the same requesi was not made prior to her interview with Jeanne Russell of the Express News. Her request was against Paisano policy, so no interview took place.
Provost Garza would not comment on who chose to assign the creation of thc model to Leal, but simply said. "Thc decision to pick a model had to bc an administrative one." He added that he did approve thc implcmcnlalion of Leal's model.
When raises were inipicincnicd in September 1997. concern u\cr the model began to circuialc "When it became known that sonic ol Ihem (raises) were extremely large in mag- nitude-in fact Iwo $10.(HIOplus raises- concerned faculty started looking into the issue. ¦ said Richardson
Richardson said lhal Leal was in- \ ited to thc faculty senate meetings so that she could explain lhe model and
Jennifci Sui/Th ¦ Pais.ino
The San Antonio community participates in the march held Sunday, Mar. 8 at Hemisphere Park off S. Alamo St. in celebration of International Women's Day. Events began on Monday, Mar. 2 and Included spealcers, writers, and UT directors.
show how it was arrived at. "She informed us that she would not come to the .senate, but that she would write a report that described the model." he said. Richardson added that Leal later told him she had been instructed not to distribute the report, but was willing to submit a simplified version to the sen¬ ate.
'The admini.stration should have come up with a model that the person or persons who developed it would be happy to come to the senate, explain Ihc model, defend it. and also defend it in court. " Richardson said.
Finally, by using an open records request, and spending over one hun¬ dred dollars of his own money to ob¬ tain copies of all data uscd by Leal. Richardson was able to view the lull report. "The new dala merely adds fuel to the fire in the sense that it raises
Continued on page 3
Online texts threaten to replace books
College Press Senice
Students at Trinit\ Universiiy in San Antonio. Texas, use words like "frustrating" and ¦enlightening" in the same sentence to describe Professor Roberi E. Jensen's business courses.
Jensen doesn't leach from a text¬ book or course packets, and handouts are rare. Students spend the majority of their lime working on computers. Many don'l touch a piece ofpapcrall semes¬ ter.
"It's a new experience that takes gellingusedlo.. said BrandonJ Lamb. 22. a graduale sludeni al Triniiy who has laken some ot Jensen's classes. "I have been using textbooks all of my lifetoleJirn. Reading, noie-iaking.and sludy ing oif the Inlernet is coinplClely dilfereni. I had to relearr how to learn in order lo get the most oul of the course."
Like a growing number of students across the counlr\. Lamb has experi¬ enced a new wave in education — an online approach lo teacliing and sludy-
Continued on page 3
Lack of knowledge about S.G. elections results in low voter turnout
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Rene Flores/The Paisano
Students vote in the student government elections on IMarch 4 and 5. Voter turnout was only 4.5 percent of the student body.
Gary Wright
Editor
Only 4.5 percent of UTSA's more lhan 16,000 .students voted in thc 98- 99 student govemment general elec¬ tions held March 4 and 5.
Out of the 807 ballots, 127 were cast by students at the downtown cam¬ pus. "I think that the fact that a greater percent voted downtown than ever before demonstrates the enthusiasm students have toward being a part of the University," stated Judy Juarez, student government president. How¬ ever, Juarez found the lack of partici¬ pation on the 1604 campus, "very disappointing."
The central issue appears to be thc ability of candidates to communicate with students al both campuses. Randy
Degner. assistant direcior of student leadership and activities and student govcrnmeni advisi)r. feels thai it is easier for candidates to address students al the downtown location due to its rclaii\ ely small size compared to the 1604 loca¬ tion. "I think everything is so concen¬ trated downtown, so it's easier to find out what's going on.'' said Degner.
Stephanie Rela. a freshman accounl¬ ing major who attends classes at the downtown campus and voted in the elections, echoed Degner's commenls. "It's such a small campus (downtown), when stuff like Ihe election happens, everyone knows aboul it." said Rela. "The 1604 campus isjust too big."
Melanie Cepeda. who came in sec¬ ond in the presidential race with -^54 of 794 voles cast, believes that most stu¬ dents were not aware that thcie was an
election "1 spoke lo a lol ot people and half of ihcm didn'i e\en know what w as going on w hich is embarrassing lo me." Cepeda said.
Cepeda feels the answer lies in Ihe amouni of time candidates are ailowed 10 spend campaigning. 'I think ihere should be a lol more campaign lime and students should get involved ear¬ lier. " stated Cepeda. "There are close to 17.0(K) siudenls lhal I could have reached. Ijusi didn't have the lime."
Juarez believes in a dilfereni solu¬ tion "F think if all the candidates were out there campaigning aggressively and talking lo people, it would warrant a higher voter turnout." said Juarc/. "Candidates need to lake advantage of the avaiiabie campaign time. I don't
Continued on page 3
A&E:
South Park on the Internet pg- 7
Sports:
Women's Basketball: First Post-Season Win!
pgn
Features:
Spotlight on the Aikido Club
pg-5