SPORTS >> PAGE 8
VARIETY >> PAGE 5
Villanova’s dominant second-half performance downs Tribe 20-16.
The resurrected Do One Thing initiative returns to campus.
Focusing on sustainability
College falls short
The Flat Hat
Vol. 103, Iss. 13 | Tuesday, October 8, 2013
The Twice-Weekly Student Newspaper
Faculty pay remains low College aims to compete BY ZACH HARDY AND ARIEL COHEN FLAT HAT CHIEF STAFF WRITER AND ASSOC. NEWS EDITOR
As state funding for the school continues to decrease and expenses increase, the College of William and Mary is working to provide competitive salaries for faculty. “Do we lose people? Yep,” Provost Michael Halleran said. “Sometimes it’s the challenge of finding a position for their spouse, sometimes its money, sometimes it’s a different opportunity, sometimes it’s just because. Money can be a part of the discussion, but it’s not the only reason people leave. Life is more complicated than that. It’s more multidimensional.” The College was recently ranked third in the nation for best undergraduate teaching, behind Dartmouth College and Princeton University. Although the College’s faculty was ranked higher than that of any other public university, the average salary of $117,600 in 2011-12 was substantially lower than Dartmouth and Princeton’s faculty average — $162,100 and $193,800, respectively. A College faculty satisfaction survey conducted in April found that professors expressing high to moderate satisfaction fell from 83 to 66 percent. Of the 19 percent of tenured professors looking for a new job, 89 percent cited dissatisfaction with their salary as a reason for hoping to leave the College. The College aims to reach the 60th percentile ranking of faculty salaries for its peer group, as defined by the State Council of Higher Education for Virginia. Members of the peer group include Georgetown University, Dartmouth College and Vanderbilt University. The College is currently ranked in the 17th percentile. In 2011, the College was in the 28th percentile. Halleran said that even though the College does not provide as competitive of a salary as some other peer institutions, other factors help attract and retain quality professors. “Money alone is never what motivates people,”
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See SALARIES page 3
UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA, BERKELEY • UNIVERSITY OF WISCONSIN • PURDUE UNIVERSITY • UNIVERSITY OF WASHINGTON • UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA, SAN DIEGO • UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA, DAVIS • UNIVERSITY OF MINNESOTA • UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA , IRVINE • UNIVERSITY OF MICHIGAN • THE OHIO STATE UNIVERSITY • UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA, SANTA BARBARA •
U.S. NEWS AND WORLD REPORT’S 2011 TOP 26 PUBLIC UNIVERSITIES
STATE
FUNDING
THE COLLEGE: AN OUTLIER?
UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA , LOS ANGELES • UNIVERSITY OF FLORIDA • PENNSYLVANIA STATE UNIVERSITY • UNIVERSITY OF ILLINOIS AT URBANA-CHAMPAIGN • UNIVERSITY OF MARYLAND • RUTGERS UNIVERSITY • UNIVERSITY OF PITTSBURGH • GEORGIA INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY • UNIVERSITY OF NORTH CAROLINA AT CHAPEL HILL • UNIVERSITY OF TEXAS • UNIVERSITY OF GEORGIA • UNIVERSITY OF VIRGINIA TEXAS A&M UNIVERSITY • CLEMSON UNIVERSITY • THE COLLEGE OF WILLIAM AND MARY GRAPHIC BY ABBY BOYLE / THE FLAT HAT
In a recent study, the College of William and Mary was listed among three public universities in U.S. News and World Report’s 2011 top 26 rankings that do not offer any form of benefits to employees’ same-sex domestic partners.
Faculty Assembly resolves that College should extend benefits BY ABBY BOYLE FLAT HAT NEWS EDITOR
In an unanimous decision, the College of William and Mary’s Faculty Assembly adopted a resolution Sept. 24 recommending that the College extend benefits to employees’ same-sex domestic partners. The resolution — which emphasizes that over 300 colleges and universities in the
country grant same-sex domestic partner benefits to their faculties — states that benefits associated with employment at the College should be provided to employees regardless of sexual orientation or gender identity. At the moment, the College operates on Virginia’s state health plan, which does not extend health benefits to same-sex domestic partners. “I think the fact that the Faculty
Assembly’s vote on that resolution was unanimous is significant,” Faculty Assembly Vice President Susan Grover said. “That suggests to me that this is an idea whose time has come.” Hispanic studies professor George Greenia said that faculty at the College have been discussing the issue of same-sex partner domestic benefits for about 20 years.
NATIONAL
Professors discuss shutdown’s effect on grants College departments will work with funds dispensed before recent shutdown BY ANNIE CURRAN FLAT HAT NEWS EDITOR
This October, Associate professor and Chair of applied science Christopher Del Negro was supposed to participate in a review of a grant from the National Institute of Health which he had applied for in June. Instead, the government shut down — closing NIH, cancelling the meeting and backlogging his grant submission. Del Negro and other researchers at the College of William and Mary depend on federal grants to fund their projects. According to Director of Sponsored Programs Jane Lopez, the College will not be able to apply for any federal grants during the shutdown. The department of applied science and many others are currently working with funds
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that were dispersed prior to the shutdown. Del Negro says that even though the government is closed, he still will be able to apply for grants. Citing an Oct. 15 grant deadline, he says if the government reopens after that date he will be able to resubmit. “It’s not like an eclipse of the moon that’s one day or never. In fact, when the government opens, we’ll all be able to submit grants,” Del Negro said. “Nobody is going to miss out on the opportunity to submit and the grants that are in process right now will still be acted upon, but’s it’s just backlogged.” Professor Dennis Manos, vice provost for Research and Graduate/Professional Studies, William and Mary director for the Applied Research Center and interim director of the William and Mary Research Institute,
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agrees that the government will generally extend the deadlines for grant submissions if the deadlines fell during a time when the government was closed. “Everyone believes what’s going to happen is the agencies will come back online and then they will extend any deadline that passed during this inner period,” Manos said. Manos believes the shutdown will not last much longer than the debt ceiling debate Oct. 17, so his department will be able continue with their work. “Unless it were to go on for a very long period of time — where all bets are off — then it would begin to become very serious because people’s current work would expire and they might not be able to renew. That’s a different matter,” Manos said.
Del Negro says because the College knows the government will open up at some point, they will allow researchers to continue spending money. According to him, this practice happens even when the government is open. If the NIH sends him a letter stating they will give him money in June, the College allows him to start spending in March because the check will eventually come. “It’s not quite the same as your take-home pay, where if you don’t get your take-home check, you can’t spend it,” Del Negro said. “It’s a little bit more flexible than that.” According to Del Negro, the backlog of late grants will affect the peer review process once the government reopens.
See BENEFITS page 3
CONSTRUCTION Last weekend Tucker Hall was vandalized. The tagging that was spray painted onto the side of the building is being cleaned off. “There is no [structural] damage that I can detect. It was one incident of graffiti but it’s being painted out,” Director of Planning, Design and Construction Wayne Boy said. “It’s nothing significant.” — Flat Hat Assoc. News Editor Bailey Kirkpatrick
COURTESY PHOTO / WM.EDU
See SHUTDOWN page 3
Inside OPINIONS
Inside VARIETY
The value of unpaid internships
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of The College of William and Mary
Admittedly, they can be unfair, but unpaid internships allow students to tap into resources beyond monetary reward. page 4
Lady Skipwith’s legacy
The Flat Hat investigates local ghosts for the month of October, starting with Colonial Williamsburg’s own undead Cinderella. page 6