June 1, 2006
Peer portfolio
FUNDING RETIREMENT — At the University of California, Davis, the 15-year retirement contribution holiday is over. A state surplus has for 15 years given state workers at UC-Irvine a free pass for their retirement benefits, but the good times are apparently over. The university’s newspaper, Dateline, reports that the UC Davis pension fund is within a few years of falling below fully funded status, so the regents decided to “redirect member contributions back into the the universitywide pension fund starting in July 2007.” The University also will contribute to the fund.
MICHIGAN FALCONS — Anyone who has followed the story of Pale Male and Lola, the red-tailed hawks whose adventures on Manhattan’s Fifth Avenue brought worldwide press attention, knows that birds tend to outrank buildings in the public eye.
And so it likely comes as no surprise in Ann Arbor, as reported by The University of Michigan newspaper, The Record, that the university silenced the 45 tons of bells that comprise the Charles Baird Carillion in Burton Memorial Tower on March 10 after it was learned that two Peregrine falcons — infrequent visitors to Michigan, to be sure — were nesting in the tower. The bells rang out again for a March 19 honors convocation.
“This is the first time I’ve seen a Peregrine in Michigan,” The Record quoted Interim Provost Ned Gramlich, who is also an avid birder and member of the Audubon Society. “So we went to the best birders we could find. Their view was that neither the vibrations or the sound of the bells nor the clock chimes would seem to be a problem for the falcons.”
That’s good, because it looks like the pair is on the nest — that is, they’re expecting.
TENURE TIME CHANGE: The Faculty Council of the University of Missouri-Columbia has adopted a new policy allowing automatic one-year “tenure clock” extensions for faculty upon the birth or adoption of a child.
According to the university newspaper, Mizzou Weekly, the Council passed a proposal in late fall that would make approval of a tenure extension automatic when an “eligible faculty member” asks for it. The extension would apply to both male and female faculty, and would not prevent them from seeking tenure earlier.
Current UM policy, the Weekly reported, requires faculty applying for such extensions to “prepare a detailed dossier” documenting progress that some see as an unnecessary barrier for those needing the help. The proposal was passed overwhelmingly by the faculty in early May and will go into effect immediately on the Columbia campus. The University’s Board of Curators must also approve the policy for it to be extended to the university’s other three campuses.
Peer Portfolio is a periodic column chronicling what’s going on at the UW’s peer institutions.
