jean.g.cook@jsums.edu
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Jackson State University President Carolyn W. Meyers prepped the university faculty and staff for the fall 2011 semester with a state of the university report and a challenge to keep
JSU President Carolyn Meyers
reaching toward new heights.
“What got us here, won’t get us there,” she said during JSU’s Fall Faculty and Staff Seminar on Aug. 11. “We can’t miss the boat.”
Meyers’ address outlined many university accomplishments during her first 200 days as president, which included a successful reaffirmation of accreditation visit from the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools, a state and regional alumni relationship building tour, the organization of a new senior leadership team and selected faculty and staff salary increases.
Meyers also showed her commitment to working on ways to make JSU salaries more competitive by donating a $10,000 personal check to launch a faculty and staff salary endowment fund.
Moving into the future, Meyers said Jackson State will hold onto its core values of tradition, service and responsibility while it expands online and distance learning, steps up fundraising, marketing and enrollment management efforts, supports faculty and staff innovation and broadens its presence locally, nationally and globally.
“We will solidify our position in the city of Jackson, the state of Mississippi, the region and all over the world,” she said.
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JSU is encountering multifold obstacles:
1- Most of the appointees by the JSU president are the reminiscence of the Mason’s administration, who do not know how to say no and these individuals, due to the incompetence, do anything to remain in power.
2- The statistics are all cooked up by the JSU administrators and most of the administrators who provide these statistics are the byproduct of inbreeding ( more bluntly faculty incest), and questionable qualification,
3- A recent survey, by an independent agency, shows the JSU ranks number 4, with respect to the ratio of administrators to the student. In other words this means only 3 university in the entire continent of USA has more administration per capita that the beloved JSU.
4- The salary discrepancies among the administrators and the faculty members are huge with no hope of rectification. This large deviation has been detrimental to the well being of JSU.
5- Most of the chairs, associate deans, deans, including new appointees at the said levels, have been given these positions for the “Control Purposes” not based on their qualifications. Moreover these individuals have served for a long period of time. These individuals must be forced to give up their job otherwise they will continue to do the same things over and over and we must not expect a different result.
6- Cronyism is a rampant phenomenon at JSU. Many administrators higher their relatives or their friends using different schemes, which may not be illegal but definitely are unethical and unprofessional.
7- The quality of education is declining at JSU and students are suffering as a result of this. Most of students are being ill-advised and are provided with false information as far as the job availability and market’s needs are concerned when they are being recruited.
8- The tenure and promotion process is measurable. Some faculty who are qualified are being denied either tenure or promotion and some other faculty who fail to even meet the minimum requirements are being granted tenure or promotion.
9- The leadership of the JSU faculty senate has been silent in recent months especially when it pertains to new controversial appointments. Apparently the leadership has failed to reflect the faculty concerns to the president.
10- The JSU president has failed to establish open door policy, so that the faculty and the JSU constituency can convey their concerns to her. Maybe she thinks, if she deprives herself from knowing the facts and the truths she will be immune from accountability.
Hopefully those who care for the JSU and the students it serves, will see into it that these obstacles are being circumvented so that JSU will survive in the distant future.
Anonymous:
Are there any positive comments one wish to share about Jackson State?
Hint–president Meyers personal donation to the university in an attempt to address faculty salaries.
How about stating 10 possible solutions to the problems one mentioned in your comments.
1st! what is this fund exactly! OK 10k donated to do WHAT! for WHO EXACTLY! maybe if i knew exactly what this was for and whom, i could make a suggestion! as for now my suggestion is to tell ME EXACTLY who this 10k helps! because i work at the university and i am severely underpaid and my loyalty and dedication to my Alma Mater is running thin when i have bills piling up. So again I’m forced to ask WHAT is this money for exactly! WHO does it benefit and HOW!
I commend President Meyers for her generous donation, but I hope we are keeping our lowest paid, yet super crucial staff in mind when raising money for salaries. Live-in Residence Life staff and Campus Police immediately come to mind. These individuals do so much for students and for JSU as a whole, yet they are rarely– if ever– verbally commended, and they are certainly not paid what they should be in comparison to the bigger IHL universities and the national salary average for university staff of their type. I understand that we are facing extremely challenging times, financially speaking, but we can’t ignore the sacrifices non-traditional employees (i.e. those not working standard 8-5, M-F jobs) must make to earn their keep here.
Live-in Residence Life staff, for instance, frequently work 16 hour days at the desk (with no overtime), including some overnight shifts (midnight to 8am), and directors are on call 24hrs to address emergencies in the dorm, yet most, if not all, of them have not had a raise since they joined the staff. As if that isn’t challenging enough, they are expected to attend HR-mandated events (like the Customer Service training) which occur during their off time because anything scheduled between 8 and 5 is more convenient for traditional staff, as opposed to non-traditional staff like dorm directors and police.
So, as we are thinking of increasing salaries, let’s stop padding the salaries of people who are already doing well, and think of the “little people” who deserve to be fairly compensated for the hard work they do for JSU.
President Meyers:
Ones generosity toward the establishment of the JSU faculty and staff endowment fund is commendable and innovative. In my opinion, this is a viable solution to addressing the salary question.
Those who disagree: submit your ideas and suggestions.
At present, it is essential for all to have and open mind about the challenges and solutions at hand. We will have differing opinions and dissent, but at the end of the day, it is about what positive contributions and commitments we are willing to give to the university. That is the real focus.
My hope is, the alumni, faculty, staff and supporters will meet president Meyers’ request to work toward securing the best possible future for Jackson State University.
A commenter stated that many of the current appointments are ‘incompetent’: I would not go that far. We all have some degree of competencies.
The problem is people choose to under-perform because there is no challenge to do otherwise. Do I think there were stronger and more dynamic candidates for provost, student life and v-p of finance? Probably. Although, I am willing to grant the president’s appointees an opportunity to help move the university to a higher place.
The stipulation: Each appointee should be held to agreed up benchmarks in order to remain in appointed positions. However, in fairness, one needs to know what the expectations are upfront, first.
Find your voice…
One must totally concur with he aforesaid comment. One wonders:
(a) Who developed the formula, if any, for the salary adjustment?
(b) What is the formula?
(c) In the case of existence of any formula, why it has been kept secret?
(d) Ambiguity: Salary Raise or Salary Adjustment?
The JSU faculty senate and staff senate must act promptly to bring these issues to the Meyer’s attention and demand a response.
Anonymous:
These are legitimate questions. However, some of the answers lie with the faulty/senate leadership. Is the leadership engaged with the administration on this important issue, and has it been seated at the table on other relevant ones? I think proactive positions always do better than reactive ones.
Meyers in several ocassions promised to several JSU fans that she would cut the number of administrators. However not only she did not fullfill her promise, but also she increasded the number of administrators and promoted several others from the Mason’s era. Also she has shown that she does not respect transparency and she wanyts to maintain status que. No one knows how the two million dollars, which was supposed to adjust the faculty salary, has been didtributed and who are beneficiaries of the said money. More importantly Meyers has ignored the faculty senate resolution that demands a drastic cut in the number of administrators. Jury is out to evaluate the action or lack of action of the JSU faculty senate president. All indications point to the lack of leadership of the president and the lack of care for the JSU future.
Anonymous:
What administrative positions does one propose should be eliminated and why?