UMW makes official definition of administration available to students
2 min read
Alex Sakes | The Blue & Gray Press
By ALEXANDRIA RIKER
Earlier this semester at a Student Government Association meeting, vice president for Administration & Finance & CFO Rick Pearce, along with executive director of Budget Financial Analysis Paul Messplay, explained to students that tuition prices might rise in the next coming year.
During the meeting, Pearce and Messplay said that they did not have a set definition for what an administrator is, giving the SGA cause for concern that if administrative members are overpaid, it may very well be one of several reasons causing students to possibly pay more tuition.
The SGA prompted that “administrator” be defined because the definition of administrator could tie with the tuition costs.
Juliette Landphair, the vice president for student affairs, responded to the SGA by sending a definition of what constitutes as an administrator. While inquiring about the matter, Landphair said via email that “these definitions are not new but have been in place for years and are shared by other state public institutions.”
According to the Administrative/Professional Faculty Definitions Spring 2016 Document, ‘administrative faculty’ (instructor) and ‘administrative’ (professor) were defined as follows: “Administrative Faculty– perform work directly related to the management of the educational and general activities of the institution, department or subdivision. Administrative– administrative faculty who are also awarded teaching rank by contract.”
After this information was given out, the SGA was able to get a clear picture of what they were looking at, and overall felt better informed.
“I absolutely think the landscape now is more clear, because any definition is better than no definition,” said the vice president of SGA, Alex Obolensky. “As they had no definition previously, I think the Student Government has served an essential function by instigating this process.”
The SGA believes it has made progress in the matter, even if it was something as little as gaining a clear and direct definition.
He also talked about the availability of knowledge on why tuition costs have increased. “This will position the student body to much more effectively challenge what may well be unnecessary or unjustified cost increases,” Obolensky said.
