4 Murder March Mystery Madness r• Dinner —page 10 —page 7 AIM 4 THE BEHREND CON Friday, March 24, 2006 SGA candidates continue campaigning Otte controversy The SGA presidential and vice presidential hopefuls begin the annual presidential debate Faculty upset The Penn State Senate Committee on Faculty Benefits is releasing its summary on faculty salaries for the 2005-2006 academic year. With the circulation of this summary. Penn State is publicly announc ing some of its external and internal reviews on salary issues for this academic year. In addition to the release of reviews. for the first time Penn State is releasing the ranks and salaries for the divisions of schools at each individual campus. With the disclosure of the figures, many faculty members who have expressed concern over some of the salary disparity disclosed in these documents. The main area of concern is a table detailing the differ ences in pay from other divi sions of Behrend and other campuses. The release of the salary data has left many professors in Humanities and Social Sciences wonder ing why they are paid so much less. Fashion packs McGarvey -page 8 Contents News Opinion.. Humor Student Life Sports Contad Newsroom 898-6488 Fax: 898-6019 E-mail editorinchief@psu.edu Our offices are located down stairs in the Reed Union Building. By Christopher LaFuria sports editor csfsoos psu.edu According to the chart containing the salary data, Associate Professors in Behrend's Humanities and New Behrend program headed for approval The forthcoming Penn State Erie Nursing program is now pending approval. Dr. Ken Miller, of Student Affairs, said that, "It's submitted to the academic coun cil for undergraduate education and is being reviewed at University Park. He continued, saying that, "After that it goes to the Vice President for the commonwealth cam puses, John Romano. From there it goes to Provost of the University." The program is in the Fall of 'O7, expected to begin with approximately thirty students participating and another thirty in the second year. ...1-4 The following year Miller said that the class is expected to be, "Somewhere in the neighborhood of fifty to sixty students for the two year program." It would be overseen by corporate and continuing education, which is staffed at the Logan House. When asked where the classes for the Nursing program will be held, Miller replied, "Mostly Behrend and Benson buildings. As engineering shifts to the REDC, the science department will go in to what is the engineering complex, and that will free up space for Nursing." The Nursing program will have to be certi fied by the State Board of Nursing after the school approves the program. Once it's approved by the state, it can be put into place. Miller said, "It's exciting, and something we have wanted to do for a long time. We hope that the Baccalaureate Degree program will follow. It would be nice to do that completion program in the future." He also pointed out that, "University Park is supportive of the The FtELA., will provide enough space for the nursing program as well as new classrooms. ...8-9 ....10 A Penn State Erie Student Publication MAR 2 4 2006 at revealed salary disparity Social Science division earn a median salary of approximately $62,000 a year. This figure causes two areas of concern for many pro fessors at Behrend. The first area of concern is the comparison of the Humanities division to other schools on Behrend's campus. Associate Professors in the school of Business at Behrend earn a median salary of $lOB,OOO, which is the highest salary for any division of any branch campus of Penn State. The second area of concern is the comparison of Humanities and Social Science professors at Behrend to those at other branch campuses is significantly different. For example, profes sors of Social Sciences at Penn State's Abington campus earn a medi an salary of approximately $73,000, which is more than $lO,OOO high er than the salaries of the same professors at Behrend. While Penn State uses these figures to assess the range of salaries among the branch campuses, many professors at Behrend question the reasoning behind such significantly different numbers. According to a Humanities professor at Behrend who requested anonymity in fear of reprisal, "I believe in the concept of equal pay for equal work. - This signifies the concern of the vast difference between the Humanities' salaries and those of Business professors. The salary summary concludes by outlining possible reasons for the deviation in salaries for faculty. In the executive summary, it states, "The variability in faculty salaries is likely due to several interactive factors including but not limited to mean years in rank, within college discipline and departmental norms, market forces, and merit based salary increases." Since the release of the salary data by Penn State, many professors By Matthew Burneisen staff writer mrbso6l@psu.edu Controversy surrounds all good political battles and Wednesday's Student Government Association (SGA) Presidential debate was no exception. The question of whether or not an election was even going to be held was still up in the air Monday evening. An appeal to overturn last week's Senate decision to let the Soni/Zambanini ticket run in this year's election was brought to SGA ear lier this week. The appeal was signed and submitted by Lori Lawhead and Cody Earhart, both SGA Senators. Lawhead and Earhart were still concerned with the issue of Vice Presidential candidate Ross Zambanini's SGA experience. According the SGA Constitution, "...the SGA President and Vice President must have com pleted at least one year of Behrend SGA services before beginning their term. SGA services defined as having been an elected senator, council representative, UFS Representative, Executive Board member, committee director or committee assistant director." Last week the Elections Committee recommended the removal of the Soni/Zambanini ticket due to Zambanini's lack of proof of proper experience. However, the Senate voted to over turn the Election Committee's recommendation. programs and believes that there is a market for it here in the Northwest corner." He said, "Half of the students in the program will be returning adults or nontraditional students, and the other half in the program will likely be traditional students." Miller explained that, "The program will be through the School of Nursing being run here at Penn State Erie. They concur on the hiring of faculty and we've been in contact with them throughout the entire process so far. It's basically their curriculum that we are going to deliv er here." Right now they are working on setting up labs and deciding what is needed in the labs. Penn State is not allowed to advertise the program until it is approved by By Annie Sevin editor in chief editorinchielwpsu aft' SGA held a special meeting Monday evening to discuss and revote on the appeal. However, not enough voting members turned up for the meeting and the Senate failed to reach quorum, which meant they were not permitted to hold a vote. Senator and Vice Presidential candidate Ken Middlemiss asked, "Is there any way we can suspend the constitution to get quorum?" SGA President Alexander Henderson said that it was not possible to suspend the constitution. Henderson was absent from last Wednesday's meeting where Resolution 2005-2006-3 (the resolution to overturn the Election Committee's decision) was passed, therefore he held veto power until Wednesday. Henderson resolved to not veto the resolution because he did not thionk the Senate was breaching the constitution. Also, he remarked that he did not want this election to come to only one vote his own. Henderson's refusal to veto the resolution allowed each candidate to run in the upcoming election. Both tickets presented their campaign platforms at the "Meet the Candidates" event Monday night; as did most of the Senatorial candidates.* With assurance that both tickets would be on the ballot next week, the Presidential Debate took place as sched uled. have voiced their concern about the obvious disparity in salaries. While many Humanities and Social Science professors are working to formulate an explanation for such inconsistency, they conclude that the most they can do is talk about the facts and make these figures known to the public. This is a possible method and vehicle for getting their concerns to be more concrete to the public. Main Solarise for AMOMINO 'Messer* •! lieltivad $l2O QOO II 1.10 Q)3 1111 klo OOP Sao 000 x 40.000 $2O 000 BHSiIIEISS tiEET Spancgt 1-ISikS Robert Frank / THE BEHREND BEACON The Behrend faculty are irritated by salary discrepencies. the University. After the program gets university and state approval then they can start marketing and adver tising it. That is when things will start showing up on the web. The Nursing program is currently held at Penn State Fayette, Mont Alto, Worthington Scranton, and University Park campuses, as part of the College of Health and Human Development. The Family Nurse Practitioner Option was described online as being, "designed for registered nurses who want to function, in an expanded role as a family nurse practitioner, providing direct care to individuals and families throughout the lifespan." Another program of interest was the Clinical Nurse Specialist Option. It is described as an, "option [that] enables the student to acquire advanced knowledge of health care for individuals and aggre gate populations; and to devel op the skills needed to engage in a specified advanced practice role." The following specialties may be selected within the CNS option: Adult Health (Med/Surg), Clinical Trials Research, Community Health Nursing, Nursing Administrator and Gerontological Nursing. Students may also elect to include courses in their program of study that support sub-spe cialty practice, e.g. cardiac care, diabetes care or other special- Vol. LIII No. 24 DEBATES continued, page 3 ized areas of practice ED PHO'
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