Anyone interested in learning more about merit pay may want to check the 
following links:

the first is from a Univ. of Toronto prof., the second is commentary from 
Education Week, the third is from Harvard Business Review, and the fourth 
from Compensation & Benefits Review.
http://www.news.utoronto.ca/bin/bulletin/jan5_98/forum.htm
http://www.alfiekohn.org/teaching/edweek/meritpay.htm
http://faculty.washington.edu/~janegf/sixmyths.pdf
http://www.alfiekohn.org/managing/cbdmamam.htm

These do not necessarily represent the opinions of the UTC Faculty Senate, 
the UCW, THEC, or anybody else you know of.

yours politically incorrectly,
Fritz.

At 12:37 PM 11/14/2005 -0500, Oralia Preble-Niemi wrote:
>We keep hearing what a bad thing it was that 50% (sometimes the percentage 
>quoted is higher) of our faculty received exceptional merit this past 
>year.  That argument is falacious.  That percentage of the faculty did NOT 
>receive exceptional merit this past year (2004-2005); that high percentage 
>represents the faculty who received it over the course of the past five 
>years.  If we had taken only the one year into consideration, which would 
>have been an injustice to those who had earned it in the previous four 
>years but had gotten no monetary recognition for their excellent 
>performance, then the percentage would have been below 20%.  Yes, I know 
>20% of the faculty can get that rating, but the Department Heads, who were 
>part of the faculty for this once, are limited to 10%.  Personally, I see 
>NOTHING wrong with 20% of the aggregate group getting exceptional merit on 
>any given year.  Can you?
>
>Lala
>************************************************************
>"No hay libro tan malo que no tenga algo bueno."
>         -Miguel de Cervantes- Don Quijote de la Mancha
>**************************************
>"I divide all readers into two classes:  Those who read to
>remember and those who read to forget." -William Phelps
>***************************************
>Oralia Preble-Niemi, Ph.D.
>Professor and Head
>Foreign Languages & Literatures
>University of Tennessee at Chattanooga
>Chattanooga, TN  37403
>Telephone:  423-425-4273
>Fax:  423-425-4097
>***************************************