In the last full Senate meeting, the question came up of the progress with recovering indirect costs. Reilly met with Derek Gilmore about this issue, and he learned that the original date when the first payout was supposed to happen was October 31, but this hasn't happened. The issue is technological: mis-communication between ADP and Banner. Our salary and wage data is in ADP, but most of our information pertaining to grants is in Banner. These data sets need to be combined. According to the last report, our IDC rate is 51%. We need to know the current salary of the PI to get this compensation going. Apparently, we've had difficulties communicating with ADP. Reilly did not get a confirmation on when this issue would be solved. Each of these refunds will be linked to a specific grant award rather than to a specific PI. Gilmore had asked Reilly how many faculty members are involved with grants and how many accounts should they set up? Gilmore had also suggested the idea of faculty research overloads: for example, a faculty member can get a teaching-course reduction but not teach a full load while also getting paid on grant overload.

Instructional Budget data for BASC: Reilly contacted VP Allen about this issue, as has Moffett. Reilly plans on bringing it up again with President Brown at their next meeting.

A Senator noted that every grant has a dollar amount for salary. The only way to change that amount line item is from the granting agency. Why does Gilmore need the salary information when it is in the wording of the formal application? Reilly answered that he was not sure, but that the impression he got is that the issue is poor communication with ADP.

Moffett asked if anyone is working on this issue? Reilly answered yes, but that he is not sure what the priority is or why this is an ongoing issue.

A Senator noted that they can look at the time and effort document of the PI’s to get this information. The Senator asked whether Gilmore was given the information about the number of PI’s on campus. Reilly replied, yes, there are 31. A Senator suggested that the PI’s could be enabled to open the professional accounts themselves: this would reduce such complications.

Moffett noted that he and Reilly have tried to ask these questions, but they get different answers. There seems little real effort to get this issue resolved. He asked the grants-faculty to let him and Reilly know how to help.

Dress Code: Reilly has made 4-5 calls about the dress code. He has learned that the only ways that a dress code violation would become an issue is if the faculty member's dean/chair was offended, or someone else filed a formal claim against the faculty member. We have not had any such reports, nor has there been any enforcement against anyone reasonably dressed.

A Senator asked, what has become of the data from the faculty salary survey? Reilly replied that the President is aware of the survey. The basic issue is that KSU is paying faculty below the current salaries. Brown has openly said that salaries are low, but he has not promised anything. Moffett added that the President has said that the Administration is going to address faculty salaries, but he has no specific information.