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Council of Higher Education Newsletter
Faculty United to Improve Higher Education in SD
October 2009
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Greetings!
Welcome to COHE News, an irregular yet informative collection of news bits on higher education in South Dakota.  Dues-paying COHE members received this newsletter earlier this week.  If you are interested in joining us, please reply or visit http://sdea.org.
 
LEGISLATIVE ALERT!
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Capitol Our sources report that in his next budget, Governor Rounds will not include any pay increases for any state employees.   We are concerned that faculty will again suffer from a second year with no cost of living increase.  This is particularly disappointing, because South Dakota ranks dead last among the fifty states in total compensation packages in public comprehensive doctoral-granting universities.   After a dozen years of increasing our salaries, policymakers brought us within 7% of the regional average.  We will now give up some of these gains, as several neighboring states increase their faculty salaries.  A second year of no pay increase will hurt both recruitment and retention of quality faculty.
 
However, we also hear that the BOR and the University Presidents are hoping to find some internal funds to increase faculty salaries a bit.  We hope that legislators understand these decisions and do not comment that if we can give salary increases, there "must be too much money in the higher education system."  In past years, the universities have added one percent, typically, to the salary increase granted by the state.  Usually, these result from "salary salvage," that is, when senior faculty retire, the replacement hire is typically brought in at something below the retiree's salary.  This salvage across the university has been distributed across all faculty. 
 
Further, we understand that all state employees deserve a pay increase.   However, South Dakota is competing for faculty in a national labor market.  To continue to improve our applicant pool and retain the best faculty, we must become competitive in salaries.   Every faculty should be aware of these issues and communicate with policymakers in their community.
 
WHO ARE WE?
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COHE
The South Dakota Council of Higher Education is your collective bargaining representative.  We negotiate directly with the Board of Regents staff on your contract.  We service that contract for all faculty, but provide additional services for our dues-paying members.  In particular, we provide mentoring and career advice, which is not available anywhere else in the university.  

Our membership has been growing in recent years.  Several campuses report a doubling of the number of members in the last four years.   We expect to continue growing so that we can enhance our efforts as the voice for higher education and the special schools in South Dakota.

We need your voice and your dues!  We need you to stand up and be counted as one who supports the power of many.   Members join for all sorts of reasons, including job protection, educators employment liability insurance, a collective voice on higher education, and substantial discounts on consumer benefits.  (http://sdcohe.org)
 
Meet Our Members
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Kathie Courtney Kathie Courtney
Associate Professor of Health Education,
Northern State University
Chapter President, NSU-COHE
 
"I joined COHE because I saw a lack of action on our campus in regard to creating a new workload policy.  When I discovered that COHE was responsible for creating the new policy I decided if I wanted to get it done I had better join COHE.  Since I joined last year I have discovered many other issues that have grabbed my attention and I am working diligently to try to make things better for the faculty on my campus.  I encourage all faculty to join COHE as there truly is power in numbers and we are sorely in need of more members."
 
THROUGH THE GRAPEVINE ...
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Grape Vine We have all heard of ratemyprofesser.com (http://www.ratemyprofessors.com).  Welcome to the next generation of social networking to "help" students.  Koofers.com, a study aid Website, advertises it makes old tests available to students.  (From where are they getting these exams?)  Moreover, we have heard it has begun to use state Freedom of Information Act requests to access course grades for every section of every course at some universities.
 
UPCOMING EVENTS
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This Saturday, October 24, State COHE Board, Al's Oasis, Oacoma, 11:00 a.m. - 4:00 p.m. SDEA President Sandy Arsenault will attend! All members are invited to attend.  We will reimburse your costs.

Next Friday, October 30, , SDSU-COHE Chapter Meeting with SDEA Executive Director Bryce Healy, Pugsley Hall 203, SDSU, Brookings, 3:00  - 5:00 p.m.

December 18 (Fri.), DSU-COHE Chapter Meeting with state COHE President Gary Aguiar,  Place: TBA, DSU, Madison, 11:00 a.m.

January 29 & 30, 2010 (Fri. & Sat.), SDEA Bargaining Conference, Pierre.  All members are encouraged to attend.   Planning has begun for this event!

 
"Investing in professors yields significant returns"
Letter to the Editor
by Gary Aguiar
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August 1, 2009

Dear Argus Leader Editor,
 
I was pleased to read Sen. Frank Kloucek's guest column in the Argus Leader (June 13, 2009) and related letters.  I agree that Pres. David Chicoine is a talented administrator who deserves the money he earns from our state.
 
By the same logic, we should also pay the people who work in the trenches of our higher education system what they are worth.   We should invest the most where the rubber meets the road, that is, in the professors who undertake the actual work to improve our future workforce.
 
This year, SDSU is celebrating the life work of Theodore W. Schultz (1902 - 1998), who won the Nobel Prize in Economics thirty years ago.  Dr. Schultz, who was born near Arlington, SD, graduated from South Dakota State College in 1927 and is the only Jackrabbit Alumnus to win a Nobel Prize.  He won the prize by showing that human capital-investment in the education of people-is the single greatest asset that a rural economy possesses.
 
Higher education produces citizens with the skills and abilities that are much in demand in the 21st century information age.   To produce the best college graduates, we need to recruit and retain the best faculty to teach and develop those skills.
 
Over the past decade, I have come to know and respect my faculty colleagues who are truly dedicated employees.  They love their work and commit countless hours to educating students.  Many are native to the region, sons and daughters of the pioneers who first settled the prairie a century ago.  Others consciously decided to move to these parts, because they wanted to raise their families in the safe, high-quality rural environment that South Dakota offers.  These people put down deep roots and are valued members of their communities, where they play active roles in civic and service clubs, amateur sports teams, churches, and local schools.
 
Thus, it was very disappointing for us to learn that state policymakers decided to provide no increase in salary for the coming school year.   For the last dozen years, the Board of Regents has made tremendous strides to bring faculty salaries to within reach of the regional average.  Now, as Montana, North Dakota, and Minnesota continue to increase their professors' pay, South Dakota will give up some of those gains.
 
I understand that many of your readers may think that faculty are overpaid and underworked, because we teach "only twelve hours" per week and we have "summers off."  I wish I had time to sit down with each individual who believes that is true, because I would like to explain.
 
To prepare for the knowledge-hungry, demanding students we see every semester requires more than rehashing old lectures.  Our students expect and deserve full engagement with the ideas we introduce.  Moreover, teaching is only one part of our obligations.  As the universities gear up to exploit research opportunities, it is the faculty who are on the frontlines performing that work.
 
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