FCBC releases compensation recommendations

By SUSAN WITTSTOCK, onCAMPUS staff

In its annual salary report released late this spring, the Faculty Compensation and Benefits Committee recommended that in the next three years, the university provide raises to faculty that are at market plus 1.6 percent.

"Market plus 1 percent will not enable the university to reach its goal of matching the benchmark average faculty salary no later than 2006. An average faculty salary increase of only 1 percent more than the market each year means that our average faculty salary will not reach the benchmark average salary until 2008," said Charles Wilson, associate professor of law and chair of FCBC for 2002-03.

As part of its analysis, the FCBC report refers to compensation goals set by Ohio State's former President Brit Kirwan in 2001.

"To implement the Academic Plan, former President Kirwan committed the university to having average faculty salaries equal to our benchmarks' average salaries by 2005 or 2006, at the latest. At this point, in order for our average faculty salary to equal our benchmarks' average by 2005, OSU would have to increase average faculty salaries by 2.4 percent more than market each year. To reach that goal by 2006, our average faculty salary would have to increase 1.6 percent more than the market average each year," Wilson said.

Ohio State has announced that for 2003-04, college and vice presidential areas are each expected to distribute a salary pool of at least 2.5 percent for salary increases, with each unit encouraged to exceed that percentage by an amount equivalent to 1 percent above the market increases in their field.

"Any time we have a salary increase above market, it obviously does get us closer to the goal of being at the benchmark average, but I am virtually certain that we will continue to be in eighth place among the 10 benchmark universities if our average faculty salary increase is only 1 percent more than market, even if the university currently in seventh place has no salary increase whatsoever," Wilson said.

Wilson said the administration's decision this year not to set a universitywide market goal when distributing funds was logical. "It makes sense to look at the market discipline by discipline instead of across the board," Wilson said. "If units go out and do a good job in coming up with funds, we should see some progress in reaching our goal of reaching the benchmark average."

Ohio State's average salary is 4.6 percent below the average of benchmark institutions, down from 1996-97, when Ohio State salaries were 1.9 percent above the benchmark average. (The benchmark institutions are nine identified institutions that are similar to Ohio State in organization and size, but are generally regarded in the top tier of public universities.) Among the 60 American Association of Universities (AAU) member schools, Ohio State is ranked 46th in average salary, down from 32nd in 1996-97 and 14th in 1983-84. Among the Committee on Institutional Cooperation (CIC) schools (a consortium of the Big Ten plus the University of Chicago), Ohio State is ranked ninth, down from fourth in 1996-97 and second in 1983-84.

The FCBC report was distributed to the University Senate and to the university's senior administration. Faculty or staff may obtain a hard copy by contacting the senate office at 292-2423. FCBC will release a report with recommendations for benefits next fall.

Salary recommendations

• Salary decision makers should not use the percentage increase in the salary budget as a basis for distributing raises. Instead, all faculty members in the same unit who are performing well and who are at the same place in respect to the market, should receive the same dollar amount increase.
  "Our position is that the minimum increase should be a dollar amount, rather than a percentage, so as not to cause those in the lower income brackets falling further behind," Wilson said.

• All faculty who receive less than half of their unit's average increase should receive written notification.
  "We are glad to see that the2003-04 compensation guidelines added the requirement that all faculty who receive less than the expected external market salary increase for their discipline or department due to performance or market position are required to be notified in writing with supporting rationale," Wilson said.

• Ohio State's departments and colleges should use information about median and average salaries to make salary decisions and should set goals for the relation between median and average salaries. In a study conducted for the first time, FCBC examined data on median and average salaries from 11 of the 12 CIC institutions and found that, for full professors in departments of 10 or more professors within colleges of the arts and sciences, the average deviation between 1998-2002 was 3.17 percent and for OSU was 5.93 percent.

"Everyone else has a closer median and average than we have," Wilson said. "This preliminary study suggests that it is an issue that needs much closer examination and more comprehensive data from our peer institutions."

Ohio State wins $8 million for research, technology

By PAM FROST GORDER, Research Communications

Five new awards totaling $8 million from the Ohio Board of Regents will help Ohio State take the lead in tomorrow's materials technology.

The regents are providing the awards through the 2003 Hayes Investment Fund Program, enabling the university to lead five research consortia. Partners in the consortia will include other Ohio research institutions and industries. Of the nearly $11 million in Hayes funds awarded this year, Ohio State-led consortia have won the majority.

Four of the five principal investigators whose projects received awards from the Hayes Investment Fund Program are, from left, Prabir Dutta, Arthur Epstein, Paul Berger and James Lee. Not pictured, Hamish Fraser.

The Hayes Investment Fund Program provides support for major equipment purchases and facilities to enhance the research infrastructure of Ohio's universities and to foster collaboration among them.

Though each consortium will address different areas of industry — including electronics, energy, automotive, aerospace and biomedical technology — all five focus on laboratory efforts to understand and control the behavior of materials, particularly through micro- or nanotechnology.

"Ohio State had a fantastic showing in this round of the Hayes Investment Fund," said Tom Rosol, interim vice president for research and a professor of veterinary biosciences at Ohio State. "These five new consortia will let the university take a leadership role in making Ohio a center for high-tech research, creating new jobs and new opportunities throughout the state."

In its meeting July 17, the Board of Regents approved the following Ohio State-led projects:

Center for the Accelerated Maturation of Materials (CAMM)

Award: $2 million

Principal investigator: Hamish Fraser, Ohio Eminent Scholar and professor of materials science and engineering.

Description: This consortium will work to design software tools to accelerate the development of new materials at greatly reduced cost. A Hayes Investment Fund award established the creation of CAMM in 1999.

Partners: University of Cincinnati, Wright State University, Air Force Research Laboratory, Knolls Atomic Power Laboratory, Alcan Technology and Management, Ford Motor Co., the Timken Co. and General Electric Aircraft Engines.

Consortium for Affordable Manufacturing of Polymers at the Nanoscale

Award: $2 million

Principal investigator: L. James Lee, professor of chemical engineering, Helen C. Kurtz Chair of Chemical Engineering, and director of Ohio State's Center for Advanced Polymer and Composite Engineering. Kurt Koelling, associate professor of chemical engineering, will be site director for Ohio State's role in the consortium.

Description: This consortium will develop new methods for fabricating materials with useful structural properties, to improve the manufacture of biomedical and other devices.

Partners: University of Akron, University of Dayton, Cleveland Clinic Foundation, Air Force Research Laboratory, Ashland Specialty Chemical Co., Applied Sciences, Inc., Owens Corning, Procter & Gamble Co., and Honda of America Mfg.

Ohio Nanoscale Patterning Consortium

Award: $2 million

Principal investigator: Paul R. Berger, associate professor of electrical engineering and physics.

Description: This consortium will create a facility for patterning a variety of materials -- including electronic, magnetic and photonic materials and devices and biomedical devices -- at the nanometer (one billionth of a meter) scale, to strengthen ongoing university-based nanotechnology research, spark the growth of high technology start-up companies in Ohio, and create new jobs in existing companies.

Partners: Ohio University, Wright State University, Lake Shore Cryotronics, Inc., Battelle Memorial Institute, Air Force Research Laboratory and NASA Glenn Research Center.

Ohio Organic Semiconductor Consortium (OOSC)

Award: $1 million

Principal investigator: Arthur J. Epstein, Distinguished University Professor of Physics and Chemistry and director of the Center for Materials Research.

Description: To speed the development of electronics made from alternative materials, including polymers, this consortium is working on better fabrication and materials synthesis technologies. This award continues support of OOSC from the last Hayes Investment Fund competition.

Partners: Kent State University, Case Western Reserve University, BTG International, Inc., DuPont Circleville, AlphaMicron, Inc. and Nanofilm, Inc.

Production and Storage of Hydrogen Consortium

Award: $1 million

Principal investigator: Prabir Dutta, the Robert K. Fox Professor of Chemistry and deputy director of the Center for Industrial Sensors and Measurements.

Description: With the goal of making hydrogen a viable energy source, this consortium will work on new processes for generating hydrogen and developing porous materials for safe hydrogen storage.

Partners: Kent State University, University of Akron, University of Cincinnati and NexTech Materials Ltd.

The Board of Regents also funded a consortium led by the University of Toledo, with Ohio State as a partner. The leaders of the Ohio State portion of the Macromolecular Crystallography Consortium are Michael Chan, associate professor of chemistry and biochemistry, and Charles Bell, assistant professor of molecular and cellular biochemistry.

That consortium, to which the board awarded approximately $1.2 million in Hayes funding, will work to modernize and increase the power of X-ray facilities used to study protein structures in the human genome. Doing so will give the researchers insight into the roles certain proteins play in metabolism, cellular signaling and the transmission of genetic information.

The Hayes Investment Fund Program requires that each university provide partial matching funds -- 10 percent of its share of the requested equipment costs -- to maintain laboratory equipment and operate the consortium. The matching funds are provided by the colleges and departments involved.

Since its inception in 1991, the Hayes Investment Fund Program has awarded almost $95 million to individual universities and university consortia.

In July of 1998, the board renamed the program in honor of Edward F. Hayes, the Ohio State vice president for research and president of OSU's Research Foundation, who died suddenly in March of that year at the age of 56.

School of Music names new director

New chair of dance announced

Karen Bell, dean of the College of the Arts, announced the appointments of Mellasenah Morris as director of the School of Music and Scott Marsh as chair of the Department of Dance. Morris' appointment will be effective Aug. 1 and Marsh's appointment was effective July 1.

Music

"It is an exciting time for our School of Music and I'm delighted Mellasenah Morris will be leading this fine program into the future," Bell said. "Dr. Morris' skills as a performer and administrator are outstanding and will strengthen our school as we continue to explore a new facility, connect with our community, and carry out the work of our talented faculty."

Morris has spent the past 11 years as director of the School of Music and professor of piano at James Madison University in Virginia, where she has been heavily involved in new program design, collaborations with other university departments and increasing facilities for music and other art programs.

As a performer, Morris has appeared in recital on university campuses and in professional venues throughout the East Coast, Midwest and in London. Prior to joining James Madison, she was dean of the School of Music at Alabama State University. She has bachelor's and master's degrees in music from the Peabody Conservatory of Music and a DMA in piano performance from the Peabody Institute of the Johns Hopkins University.

Ohio State's School of Music offers extensive artistic, scholarly and technical resources that are among the finest in America. An accredited member of the National Association of Schools of Music, it focuses on outstanding professional training, cutting-edge research and academic programs leading to bachelor's, master's and doctoral degrees. The school has been an influential part of Ohio State for more than a century, and today has a faculty of more than 50 professors, including widely recognized performing artists, composers, scholars, researchers and master teachers, along with a rich program of acclaimed visiting artists.

Dance

"It is a particular pleasure to welcome Scott Marsh to lead the Department of Dance," Bell said. "Professor Marsh is an excellent administrator with a national reputation for his effective and caring leadership. The faculty and I look forward to working with him as he leads our top-ranked dance program."

Marsh was director of a new MFA program in performing arts administration -- an interdisciplinary and collaborative graduate program -- at Western Michigan University. Previously, he was chair of the nationally recognized Department of Modern Dance at the University of Utah, where he initiated numerous interdisciplinary projects providing opportunities for students and faculty to cross department borders. Marsh has a B.A. degree in dance from the University of California­Riverside and an MFA in modern dance, performance and choreography from the University of Utah.

Widely considered to be one of the premier dance programs in America, the Department of Dance offers its students challenging dance experiences responsive to the changing contemporary dance scene. Recently, the dance graduate program was ranked by a respected industry publication as the No. 1 such program in the U.S. and Canada. Its award-winning faculty has extensive professional dance backgrounds, and its alumni are renowned choreographers, educators, notators and performers. Each year the department welcomes prominent dancers and choreographers for visiting artist residencies.

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