Personnel Policies Committee Report
Eugene J. Harvey
June 8, 2016
Personnel Policies Committee Meetings – February 2, 2016; February 10, 2016; May 13, 2016
Present: Chris Keough, Jill Locascio, Nancy Abashian, Eugene Harvey
After reviewing the data gathered through the original survey from SUNYLA representatives, committee members expressed concerns over the integrity of data. Despite the coding sheet provided to representatives, there were inconsistencies with reporting, especially for the annual salaries of individuals. For example, some reps would report salary in hourly increments while others would report only the salary earned to that point in the year (e.g. January through May). Thus, the committee decided to abandon the data gathered from the survey and decided upon a different approach that would be more reliable and valid.
The committee contacted SUNY Human Resources director Julie Petti for assistance. A FOIL request was submitted formally, and after a month or so, the data for over 8,000 faculty and almost 300 librarians from technical, comprehensive, and doctoral institutions was obtained. However, the main limitation with this dataset was the lack of information on community college librarians. Ms. Petti said community college staffing is not maintained by SUNY HR. Instead, it is managed locally, probably at the county level. Thus, data for that librarian group was not able to be retrieved. Nevertheless, despite a few limitations, the dataset that will be used for the main report is sound, valid, and reliable, which was the most important factor for the committee.
The committee will be presenting the preliminary analyses and results of the salary data at the 2016 SUNYLA Conference, and the full report will be completed later this summer. At that time, the report and dataset will be uploaded to SUNYLA website for access and preservation, and discussions with union representatives about librarian salaries can begin.
Exit Surveys
To be tallied later
Next PPC Meeting
TBD
----------
Respectfully submitted,
Eugene J. Harvey, MLS, MSW
SUNY Buffalo State
Chair, SUNYLA Personnel Policies Committee
06/08/16
