Rock solid
	The wreath at left was placed outside Bricker Hall during the Nov. 8 Rock Ceremony honoring Ohio State veterans who died in service to the country.   Photos by Kevin Fitzsimons

Above, Richard Sisson, holder of the Board of Trustees Chair in Comparative Politics, addresses ceremony participants and guests. The annual ceremony, conducted by Army, Navy and Air Force ROTC units, also features a flag presentation, rifle salute and Taps, and is accompanied by a 12-hour ROTC run around the Oval as a show of support for veterans.

Largest fossil cockroach found; site preserves incredible detail

Geologists at Ohio State have found the largest-ever complete fossil of a cockroach, one that lived 55 million years before the first dinosaurs.

The cockroach, along with hundreds of other fossil plants and animals from a coal mine in eastern Ohio, could help scientists better understand the diversity of ancient life and how the Earth's climate has changed throughout history.

The roach lived 300 million years ago, during what geologists call the Carboniferous period, explained Cary Easterday, a master's student in geological sciences at Ohio State. Ohio was a giant tropical swamp then, but this particular site was unusual.

"Normally, we can only hope to find fossils of shell and bones, because they have minerals in them that increase their chances for preservation," Easterday said, "but something unusual about the chemistry of this ancient site preserved organisms without shell or bones with incredible detail."

Among features visible in the 3.5-inch long cockroach are veins in the insect's wings, and fine bumps covering the wing surface. The roach's legs and antennae, folded around its body, are also evident, as well as mouth parts.

Loren Babcock, associate professor of geological sciences and Easterday's adviser, said scientists have only incomplete answers about what caused such extraordinary details to be preserved at the site.

Easterday said the mine first caught scientists' attention because of the plants that were preserved there, including the earliest known conifer in the Appalachian Basin.

He obtained the cockroach and other fossils in 1999 with the assistance of avid fossil collector Gregory McComas. McComas discovered the fossil site in 1979, and named it the "7-11 Mine" because it is located at the intersection of Ohio state Routes 7 and 11.

When Easterday compared the fossil cockroach from the 7-11 Mine to cockroaches living in the tropics today, he found them similar. Though the fossil cockroach is about twice as big as the average American roach, some modern roaches in the tropics are known to grow to four inches or bigger.

Easterday presented his findings Nov. 7 at the annual meeting of the Geological Society of America in Boston. Since the fossil plants and animals lived at a time when a drought was rapidly drying out their ancient swamp, Babcock and Easterday hope further study of the 7-11 site will reveal how these organisms coped with their changing environment.

Compensation dominates town meeting talk

"This is a very difficult time for all of us," President Brit Kirwan told faculty and staff who attended a town meeting with him on Nov. 9 in the Ohio Union's Stecker Lounge. The event, sponsored by the University Staff Advisory Committee, provided a chance for Kirwan to directly address staff and faculty concerns.

Larry Lewellen, associate vice president for human resources, and William Shkurti, senior vice president for business and finance, were also on hand to answer questions.

For more than an hour, Kirwan answered faculty and staff questions about compensation, medical benefits and performance reviews.

"I know how challenging it is for each and every one of you," he said. "It is a time none of us bargained for or anticipated. A year or two ago, who would have thought we'd be where we are today with our budget?"

Kirwan outlined the chronology leading to the budget crisis, from the optimism felt last fall, when it looked like higher education would get a double-digit increase in state funds, to the current situation, with the state cutting 6 percent of higher education's funding for the current fiscal year.

By Kevin Fitzsimons President Kirwan addresses the town meeting.

Higher education took a disproportionate percentage of the state budget cuts, he said. Higher education is 12 percent of the state budget, but is shouldering 54 percent of the cuts taken.

"All of this is coming at a time when, up until the budget cuts, there was an enormous amount of momentum at the University thanks to the hard work of faculty and staff like you," Kirwan said.

The Academic Plan, one of the keystones of Kirwan's tenure as president, is still a priority, he said.

"My feeling is that the Academic Plan, if anything, is even more important now that we have these difficulties. At a time like this it's especially important to have very clear and well articulated priorities for this institution," he said.

Efforts to implement the Academic Plan have been scaled back to an emphasis on faculty and staff compensation, as well as three key initiatives -- improvements to undergraduate education, which will be supported by tuition funds that exceed the former tuition cap of 6 percent; a biomedical research initiative, which will be funded in large part from the University's share of Tobacco Settlement funds; and the creation of the Institute for the Study of Race and Ethnicity in the Americas, using funds earmarked last year.

Compensation is Kirwan's top priority.

"Our real challenge, in terms of resources, is to find the money to pay people appropriately," he said. "We aren't getting any money from the state, so we'll have to self-fund our compensation plan."

The goal is to be at the benchmark mean for compensation levels within three to four years, Kirwan said.

To achieve that goal, he expects the University to provide faculty and staff with raises for the next several years that -- on average -- match the market's average increase, plus 1 percent. The specific percentage of pay raises will be determined after studies to determine market values for faculty and staff positions are completed.

Vice presidents and college deans have been asked to come forward with plans about how to address compensation in their units.

"We're asking central units to reprogram 10 percent, support units 7 percent, and colleges 5 percent from their budgets," he said. "Other than funds that must be returned to the state as a result of the 6 percent cut, the reprogrammed funds will stay in the divisions and the colleges and go toward compensation."

All plans will be reviewed by and require the approval of Provost and Executive Vice President Edward J. Ray and the Competitive Compensation Oversight Committee.

Kirwan apologized for poor communication on compensation for Fiscal Year 2001.

He explained that although all faculty and staff were given a $395 raise through central funds, colleges and departments had the option of also contributing to compensation, based on merit and equity. The policy has been in place for several years, although this year, all raises given above $395 had to be approved by the provost.

Letters were sent to deans, directors and department chairs from the provost, outlining the option to provide additional funds, but that information was not widely disseminated.

Next year, salary guidelines will appear on the Web and be summarized via Internal Communications vehicles so everyone will have ready access to them, Kirwan said. "I apologize for any miscommunication. It was certainly unintentional," Kirwan said.

Kirwan expressed his support for the Commission on Staff Development and Work/Life Survey, conducted this fall. Survey results will be shared during winter quarter.

He also informed faculty and staff that the Health Care Evaluation Committee, which was charged with evaluating the health care plans, will issue its report before the end of the quarter.

Kirwan responded to a number of questions, several of which centered on how compensation awards are -- and will be -- determined.

He assured those present that the compensation initiative is not intended for a few elite faculty, but for all staff and faculty who are contributing to the University.

"We are going to make very clear the expectation that raises will be broad-based and will be awarded across campus. Most people will see real progress," he said. "Staff are vitally important to this institution and they will be included."

Lewellen said a Dispute Resolution Committee is currently examining what recourse faculty and staff can take when they feel their compensation level is not appropriate. The committee will make recommendations during winter quarter.

Kirwan said he is open to discussing efforts to make performance reviews of staff mandatory and more standardized, to help ensure that staff deserving of raises will have their merits documented on a regular basis and to make the rewards process as fair as possible.

Finding ways, besides salary increases, to recognize staff is also a good idea, he said in response to one question. "We ought to make a special effort this year to look at benefits to staff, including those that don't have money attached to them," he said.

He also discussed whether layoffs were likely, saying that attrition will play a far more important role as the University navigates its way through the budget crisis.

"One thing we'll need to do, though, is not simply capture vacancies where they happen to occur and expect everybody in those units to just work harder," he said. "Instead, we have to significantly reduce or eliminate activities so we maintain high levels of excellence in everything we do."