{"id":1848,"date":"2020-02-21T07:49:05","date_gmt":"2020-02-21T12:49:05","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/uuphost.org\/cortland\/?p=1848"},"modified":"2020-09-23T10:20:09","modified_gmt":"2020-09-23T14:20:09","slug":"dsi-wheres-the-merit","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/uuphost.org\/cortland\/?p=1848","title":{"rendered":"DSI: Where\u2019s the Merit?"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

by Dan Harms, Chapter Vice President for Academics – <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Cortland refrain on our Discretionary\nSalary Increase money (DSI) process is that it rewards \u201cmerit.\u201d Does it?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

To start out, let\u2019s say that the campus\nshould be recognized for allowing employees to have a voice in the process of\ndeciding how contractual DSI money is handed out, both in the application phase\nand giving them an appeals process. This is not something they\u2019re required to\ndo.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But is it about merit?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

We\u2019ve just received the data from the DSI\nallocation from the last round which ended in December. It begs for\ninterpretation from someone who has actual knowledge of statistics, but what I\ncan see troubles me.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Based on my interpretation of the data, the campus gave money to over three hundred DSI recipients \u2013 yet only about sixteen of those were part-time employees. Even with some caution as to these numbers, I can nonetheless ask the administration:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

  1. Did less than twenty part-time employees on this campus merit a salary increase for their work?<\/li><\/ol>\n\n\n\n

    <\/p>\n\n\n\n

    Some might say, \u201cWe can\u2019t give money to people who don\u2019t apply.\u201d First, be aware that the campus chooses not to report the number of applicants, just the number of awards, so it\u2019s not clear whether part timers are applying or not. Second \u2013 if part-time employees aren\u2019t applying, isn\u2019t this an indication of a problem with the process? Third, we have used other processes in the past. Fourth \u2013 see below.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    Remember, the total of all full-time and\npart-time salaries determines the amount of money the campus receives for DSI.\nWe should avoid the process becoming one in which one group of faculty receives\nthe overwhelming number of awards. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

    Second, we should talk about Information\nResources, my own unit, which has many people doing hard, highly-skilled work\ncrucial to the campus\u2019 success. In addition, while the administration has made\nsome effort to deal with salary compression in other units, IR has not been one\nof them. Thus, IR has many people eager for some reward for their efforts after\nmany years, and many employees applied for DSI this round.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    The first level of application review in IR went smoothly. When it reached the second level, however, management chose to avoid making any recommendations \u2013 something that the college has never done, to my knowledge. They left that call up to the third level \u2013 after the appeals process had ended. There, the decision was made to slash the ratings of many of the applicants, sometimes dropping them two tiers. Speaking for myself, my recommendation dropped from \u201cHighly Recommended\u201d to \u201cNot Recommended,\u201d and from talking with my colleagues, many others were equally dismayed with the results. The campus did grant another appeal period \u2013 for those who felt comfortable enough to write Erik \u2013 but the damage was done. Many people who had expected something for their efforts were deeply disappointed. Further, not a single part-time applicant from IR \u2013 and we did have them \u2013 received any DSI.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    It\u2019s true that the campus has only so much money to go around, but it does decide on how it allocates it in the process and the amounts of the awards at each tier. Thus, my second question:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    2. How much should a \u201cmerit-based\u201d rating of our performance depend on how many people in the unit also apply? <\/p>\n\n\n\n

    At this time, the next DSI process memos\nhave already been mailed out. We\u2019ll see how this round goes \u2013 but I\u2019ve seen no\nindication anything will change in this next round.<\/p>\n\n\n\n


    <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

    by Dan Harms, Chapter Vice President for Academics – The Cortland refrain on our Discretionary Salary Increase money (DSI) process is that it rewards \u201cmerit.\u201d Does it? To start out, let\u2019s say that the campus should be recognized for allowing employees to have a voice<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1848","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/uuphost.org\/cortland\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1848"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/uuphost.org\/cortland\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/uuphost.org\/cortland\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/uuphost.org\/cortland\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/uuphost.org\/cortland\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1848"}],"version-history":[{"count":10,"href":"https:\/\/uuphost.org\/cortland\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1848\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2041,"href":"https:\/\/uuphost.org\/cortland\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1848\/revisions\/2041"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/uuphost.org\/cortland\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1848"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/uuphost.org\/cortland\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1848"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/uuphost.org\/cortland\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1848"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}