Report of the Strategic Planning and Budgeting Committee (SPBC)

January 15, 2008

President Wilson convened the fifth SPBC meeting of the 2007-08 year at 12:00 p.m. He asked if there were any questions or comments on the notes of the December 10, 2007 SPBC meeting. The notes were accepted as distributed.

President Wilson welcomed Andrea Ambrosia. Kelly Petrowski introduced her as the new Student Senate President for 2008. Andrea will be attending all future SPBC meetings in her new role.

Diversity Initiatives (follow-up)

As a follow-up to the SPBC's Diversity Initiatives discussion of December 10, 2007, President Wilson asked Michael Thompson to lead the Committee through a three-page spreadsheet showing IWU staff by gender, ethnicity and administrative area. These spreadsheets allow Cabinet members to compare their areas with other University areas from 2006 to 2007. President Wilson noted that page three showed the grand total for all staff. Overall, our female staff population went up 1%, while males declined 1%. Some Committee members felt that IWU's ALANA staff percentage at 8.5% was too low and not representative of the population. President Wilson noted there were several ways to look at these data -- by the population in the state and by the population of our peers. The Committee discussed ways to simplify the tables in the future.

Michael then presented information from the 2005 IPEDS Human Resources Survey. When compared to institutions in the GLCA and ACM Consortiums, the University ranked 13th with 7% ALANA staff. Given the differences in resources among these institutions, Michael concluded that we are not doing too badly.

President Wilson then directed the Committee's attention to the ALANA graduation rates. The table gives raw figures for each category. In general, ALANA students faired well. The overall figures were good, generally in the low 80's as percentages. There were no other questions on this chart. Beth Cunningham did mention that with smaller numbers of students in each race/ethnicity category, a small fluctuation has a large impact on the percentages.

President Wilson then shifted the attention of the Committee to the Strategic Plan's Diversity Goal. The goal has five strategies. We should look at the goal and then the strategies to see whether or not we are making strides. He asked for the Committee's assessment. The following are comments by various committee members:

-- The Diversity Goal is an ongoing goal. We should always be striving to improve in this area by recruiting and retaining ALANA students, faculty, and staff.

-- We have made gains in diversifying the classroom. We need to understand better how best to serve the needs of these students.

-- Workshops on the above issue should be considered.

-- President Wilson said that we have made the most progress in recruiting ALANA students. The number of ALANA faculty and staff has not changed as much, but some progress has been made in these areas.

-- It was mentioned that all ALANA students are not the same. Students from St. Louis are different from those from Chicago or Detroit. We need faculty to better understand these differences.

-- We need better ways to follow-up with ALANA students after graduation.

-- Some of our trustees and recent ALANA graduates could be resources. They could share their job and graduate school experiences. This could be a useful interchange and was done some years ago.

Benchmark Report

President Wilson then introduced the next item to be discussed, the IWU Benchmark Report -- Average Faculty Salaries & Compensation. Michael Thompson walked the Committee through the various tables of data and explained where we stood in each comparison. There was a great deal of discussion of our ability to compete for new faculty as well as our ability to retain veteran faculty. More discussion ensued concerning our average salary position versus average compensation. Overall, the University is above the median of the ACM peer group for both categories in all faculty ranks. In addition, the quality of our benefits program and how well it competes on a national level was illustrated in the charts presented. President Wilson stated that we would go over this report again at the next meeting. Before then, Michael Thompson will send material that will help the committee determine the best peer group for IWU. How we are presented on a given benchmark can depend on the peer group we are using.

Before adjourning, Tom Streeter asked President Wilson if funds raised from the Capital Campaign could be used on an immediate basis. President Wilson responded that we could use the money as it comes in.

The committee adjourned at 1:20 p.m.

Distributed to all faculty and staff: Feb. 4, 2008