Meade College President Blake Edwards finds himself caught between a “rock and a hard place” as changes to the institution’s longstanding faculty compensation system are considered. The faculty strongly support Meade’s current “step system” (in place for more than a decade) with its guaranteed and predictable progression increases. Faculty view the step system as transparent and straightforward, an ideal approach for a liberal arts college that espouses an “all for one and one for all” institutional culture. Over the years, however, faculty compensation at Meade has not kept pace with peer institutions and annual step increases have triggered budgetary problems. In an attempt to inject a “real world” perspective into campus life and address the fiscal realities facing the college, key members of the Meade Board of Trustees propose the addition of a merit component to the faculty compensation system. Faculty members oppose the concept of merit increases, fearing such a change would create insidious and manipulative incentives that run counter to Meade’s long-standing and productive intellectual ethos. President Edwards must decide what action to take regarding future institutional consideration of the faculty compensation matter.
Subjects: Leadership, Finance, Faculty
Setting: Small Private
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