[Hold My Own]

This just happened...

Well they're sort of stuck within the area between 16 and 18. 17 was a really cool hole. You just take your biggest heaviest disc and let it rip as hard as you can. If you throw it straight enough, you're golden if you get past the pine sapling forest. If you creep at all to the right as most right handers do, there was such as steep hill, you were a minimum of 2 strokes away. It could be pretty devastating.

[JK37]

JK, good questions. HR has full time staff now who do nothing but compare staff compensation in our various departments to similar institutions nationwide. This started about a year ago. Some departments were found to be lower than our peer institutions and significant adjustments were made. Others were found to be in line. The process is almost done. COL increases are a little late this year because we decided to wait until these studies were complete and all necessary adjustments were made first.

Mr. Chancellor, I appreciate you for making the effort and taking the time to consider my questions; however, I feel the specifics weren't entirely addressed. I've re-posted them below. I understand no one here is entitled to your responses, and I remain grateful for your transparency. I also understand if you're not able to speak to the specifics. If I'm being unclear, please let me know so I may clarify. Thank you.

Liberty faculty pay has increased every year for the last decade ($3.7M in the last few months alone) and has already surpassed many of our peer institutions.

A few honest questions for you, Mr. Chancellor:

1. What % of the University's employment is faculty? It would seem most if not all of the compensation issues raised here have been raised by or on behalf of staff.

2. What are the University's comparison schools, public and private, regional and national? Are they different for different purposes (i.e., salaries, IT, enrollment, LUO, etc.)?

3. Comparatively, how much compensation benchmarking is done internally versus externally?

Thank you.

[EagleOne]

Exactly, Humble Opinion. I think Eagle One was hoping nobody would notice the portions of my post that you underlined. Thanks.

Wasn't my intent. I didn't realize there were no longer classes held at north campus/Green hall.

[alabama24]

I didn't realize there were no longer classes held at north campus/Green hall.

It is truly difficult to keep up with what is going on around campus, even for those of us living in the "burg."

[JLFJR]

JK, good questions. HR has full time staff now who do nothing but compare staff compensation in our various departments to similar institutions nationwide. This started about a year ago. Some departments were found to be lower than our peer institutions and significant adjustments were made. Others were found to be in line. The process is almost done. COL increases are a little late this year because we decided to wait until these studies were complete and all necessary adjustments were made first.

Mr. Chancellor, I appreciate you for making the effort and taking the time to consider my questions; however, I feel the specifics weren't entirely addressed. I've re-posted them below. I understand no one here is entitled to your responses, and I remain grateful for your transparency. I also understand if you're not able to speak to the specifics. If I'm being unclear, please let me know so I may clarify. Thank you.

Liberty faculty pay has increased every year for the last decade ($3.7M in the last few months alone) and has already surpassed many of our peer institutions.

A few honest questions for you, Mr. Chancellor:

1. What % of the University's employment is faculty? It would seem most if not all of the compensation issues raised here have been raised by or on behalf of staff.

2. What are the University's comparison schools, public and private, regional and national? Are they different for different purposes (i.e., salaries, IT, enrollment, LUO, etc.)?

3. Comparatively, how much compensation benchmarking is done internally versus externally?

Thank you.

JK, I would guess nearly half of our FTEs are faculty. Call Human Resources at 434-592-7330 and ask for Shonna Meadows. She has the details and will be happy to give you information regarding what types of institutions were used for the comparability studies on staff compensation. I don't have the list of schools but, for many positions, they are non-profit private institutions with annual revenues in the range of Liberty's. Certain positions, however, were compared to local pay rates for obvious reasons, e.g., bus drivers, custodial workers, general maintenance, plumbers, electricians, etc. Hope this helps.

[JLFJR]

Exactly, Humble Opinion. I think Eagle One was hoping nobody would notice the portions of my post that you underlined. Thanks.

Wasn't my intent. I didn't realize there were no longer classes held at north campus/Green hall.

Thanks Eagle One. There are very few classes at Green Hall compared to previous years.

[Purple Haize]

Someone is posting past curfew! Next you'll get busted talking to 'Jake, from State Farm!'

[WildernessVoice]

JK, I would guess nearly half of our FTEs are faculty. Call Human Resources at 434-592-7330 and ask for Shonna Meadows. She has the details and will be happy to give you information regarding what types of institutions were used for the comparability studies on staff compensation. I don't have the list of schools but, for many positions, they are non-profit private institutions with annual revenues in the range of Liberty's. Certain positions, however, were compared to local pay rates for obvious reasons, e.g., bus drivers, custodial workers, general maintenance, plumbers, electricians, etc. Hope this helps.

Just a tiny nuance to add on the topic--the choice of peer institutions is possibly a tad on the arbitrary side, and a little influenced by desired outcomes. For example, there is only one school in my department's list of peers that has more students than ours. We have 1.5x more students in our department than Penn State U. 1.25x more students than James Madison, 3x more students than Baylor, 3x more than Michigan State, 3.5x more than Texas Christian U, (all on our peer list), and all the rest of the colleges on our list that are Christian have 12x less students than we do (!!). Those are hard numbers, btw, not estimations, so only one school is larger and all the rest are smaller. The Christian colleges should be referenced for what they are doing to integrate faith and learning, but should definitely not be on the list for pay scale, or for what their academic approach is.

[logic]

Agree, would be interesting to see the peer group lists for different departments. If the goal is 25,000 students and top 25 athletics, then schools with 25k students and top 25 athletics should make up the peer list. I hope we're not comparing ourselves to any Big South schools. IMHO the peer list should always be where you want to go, not where you've been or where you are now.

[adam42381]

Agree, would be interesting to see the peer group lists for different departments. If the goal is 25,000 students and top 25 athletics, then schools with 25k students and top 25 athletics should make up the peer list. I hope we're not comparing ourselves to any Big South schools. IMHO the peer list should always be where you want to go, not where you've been or where you are now.

Since one of the original goals was to be like Notre Dame, wouldn't that be a fair place to start the comparisons?

[logic]

Agree, would be interesting to see the peer group lists for different departments. If the goal is 25,000 students and top 25 athletics, then schools with 25k students and top 25 athletics should make up the peer list. I hope we're not comparing ourselves to any Big South schools. IMHO the peer list should always be where you want to go, not where you've been or where you are now.

Since one of the original goals was to be like Notre Dame, wouldn't that be a fair place to start the comparisons?

I am sure that our faculty/staff would one day love to have Notre Dame be in that peer group. Some professor salary stats from North Carolina's website based on "The Annual Report On The Economic Status Of The Profession, 2011-2012"

http://oira.unc.edu/faculty-salaries-at ... ities.html

Assistant, Associate, and Full Professors at Notre Dame average 90k, 97k, and 150k respectively.

Since we do not have tenure here, do we consider our professors full, associate, or assistant professors? How would our faculty/staff rate on that scale against those institutions? Quite a good list of schools including many AAU schools. It would seem that is where we would want to go. How many of those schools are on our peer list?

The Christian colleges should be referenced for what they are doing to integrate faith and learning, but should definitely not be on the list for pay scale, or for what their academic approach is.

This is a great point. If the goal is top 25 academics and athletics, hopefully the Gardner-Webbs, Biola's, Cal Baptists, and PCCs aren't on the list for faculty and staff comparisons.


Here is the eternal struggle Liberty will face in the coming years and beyond.. How to remain affordable in the world of spiraling out of control college costs, yet be able to recruit and retain the talented faculty and staff needed to reach our goal of top academics and athletics?

If you're a Bible believing professor and can teach at North Carolina making 144,000 or Liberty making 60, what do you do? Many tough questions and no easy answers. I would hate to see Liberty cost 50k like some other private schools, but at the same time would love to see professors here routinely making 100k+ as we know we would be attracting the best and retaining the best. Just like we want to recruit athletes looking at SEC schools and ACC schools and not Big South schools, we want to be recruiting and retaining faculty and staff that are teaching, coaching, and working at SEC and ACC schools and not Big South schools as well.

How to do both (keep costs down but pay well) knowing that LUO won't last forever?

[Purple Haize]

You spout all things Liberty and don't know how we break down Faculty

[JLFJR]

Wilderness Voice, did you call Shonna? Because you write as if you know what peer groups are used by Liberty for comparison purposes. I don't think you do and I think you would be surprised if you did know. Same for you, logic. You would also be surprised at how many of our faculty are paid in the $100K range.

[logic]

That is good to hear! I would believe it would be hard to recruit and retain faculty and staff against those schools if not.

[JLFJR]

logic, thanks for posting the link to the before and after Liberty pics in another thread. I hadn't seen that and I think with some tweaking and a little creativity, it could be much a more dramatic depiction of the changes.

[alabama24]

Campus was crazy today. Hardees and Movies 10 were full of unpaying "customers." Also, does anyone know why there was a barricade south of the East Campus dorms? Isn't that where some of the new parking went in?

A helicopter was flying around seemingly every half an hour. I wonder if the chancellor had people scouting things out?

[Hold My Own]

I think that was for multiple purposes. One of the reasons was to get some updated photos and another was to get a look at the new medical school location.

[Echomalleus]

JK, good questions. HR has full time staff now who do nothing but compare staff compensation in our various departments to similar institutions nationwide. This started about a year ago. Some departments were found to be lower than our peer institutions and significant adjustments were made. Others were found to be in line. The process is almost done. COL increases are a little late this year because we decided to wait until these studies were complete and all necessary adjustments were made first.

Excellent to hear! First let me say again how impressed I am that both you and Mr. Martin have taken the time to come here and help us understand, especially those that work at LU. To me, I really don't care what you charge, or where you want the staff to park. Just help compensate...heck even if the study says most should get jack squat, a simple COL is all most people really want. Great news, and thanks for taking the detailed response!

[JLFJR]

English Construction has been selected as the contractor for the medical school. They made their helicopter available to us today to view the proposed site and all the other projects under construction on campus. Here are some pictures I took:

https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set ... 0acc1be069

[jinxy]

I hope some of you guys that are so critical of every single thing liberty does are that concerned with how you run your own life haha. It seems like most of you expect instant perfection, i would understand if administration was turning a blind eye towards the things discussed in these forums but it seems as though the school is working to address many of these concerns. Just my opinion, carry on.

[WildernessVoice]

Wilderness Voice, did you call Shonna? Because you write as if you know what peer groups are used by Liberty for comparison purposes. I don't think you do and I think you would be surprised if you did know. Same for you, logic. You would also be surprised at how many of our faculty are paid in the $100K range.

Everyone in our department was given a list of colleges that were on our peer list. I would be surprised if the Deans aren't given six figures, but I guarantee there isn't anyone in our department in the $100k range. Would be glad to be the first guinea pig, though.

[jmdickens]

Had Becki Falwell's vehicle ever been towed?

[NotAJerry]

I hope some of you guys that are so critical of every single thing liberty does are that concerned with how you run your own life haha. It seems like most of you expect instant perfection, i would understand if administration was turning a blind eye towards the things discussed in these forums but it seems as though the school is working to address many of these concerns. Just my opinion, carry on.

Ah, in the midst of good conversation about important issues, I was wondering if reductio ad absurdum would make an appearance.

[Purple Haize]

I hope some of you guys that are so critical of every single thing liberty does are that concerned with how you run your own life haha. It seems like most of you expect instant perfection, i would understand if administration was turning a blind eye towards the things discussed in these forums but it seems as though the school is working to address many of these concerns. Just my opinion, carry on.

Ah, in the midst of good conversation about important issues, I was wondering if reductio ad absurdum would make an appearance.

We now know the identity of 'Blow Hard #3'

[jinxy]

Coming from you two i'll take that as a compliment.