On Oct. 17, VSU’s Faculty Senate met and discussed a controversial salary modification study, along with several other topics at its monthly meeting in the University Center.

President Richard Carvajal addressed the senate, beginning the meeting by touching on the coming changes to VSU’s current compensation and classification policies.

According to President Carvajal, there are faculty members across several different areas of study doing similar jobs that are not being paid equally. The new policies will address this and ensure pay equality.

There has been a big change in employee insurance at VSU which is that a spousal surcharge of $100 has been added to encourage the spouse of VSU faculty and staff members to use the insurance provided by their own employer.

President Carvajal acknowledged that some members of the senate felt this new surcharge had “come out of nowhere” and admitted that everyone involved right now is “looking for answers where no easy answers exist.”

He continued his address of the senate with a reminder on how important school accreditation is for VSU.

“If we lose accreditation, we get no Pell grants and no Zell Miller scholarships,” President Carvajal said.

Immediately following President Carvajal, Alex Daman, a Public Service Associate from UGA began his compensation and classification research study summary.

Daman spoke on developing a new academic and administration faculty/staff classification system, a new compensation plan based around pay equality, full-time pay plans compared to part-time pay plans, costs of plan implementations, new-hire pay rates and compensation research result letters being sent to employees on Nov. 11.

In other news, Ethics Awareness Week is Nov. 11-17 and the Faculty Grievance Committee has been filled.

President Carvajal, Daman and VSU faculty and staff met in the Cypress Room of the UC to discuss matters such as Ethics Awareness Week, compensation and classification policies, employee insurance changes, accreditation and any updates from the individual committees represented at the senate meeting.

Written by Zach Edmondson, Staff Writer.