By Heather Fabritze
News Editor
As part of a wider period of growth for Washington College, President Dr. Mike Sosulski commissioned Stevens Strategy, a higher education consulting firm, to conduct a compensation study for the institution’s faculty and staff members.
Stevens Strategy shared the preliminary results of the process at a joint meeting with the Budget and Finance Committee on Nov. 11. While the presentation did not include concrete outcomes from the data they collected, the committee left the meeting with a basic understanding of the study and its methodology.
According to Vice President for Finance and Administration Bo Connell, the company’s study will contain three distinct sections. The first is an internal equity review of the salaries of faculty and staff members at the College, followed by a phase of external data collection from peer aspirant institutions to determine their own employees’ salaries.
The final stage will analyze the current cost of living for WC faculty and staff, review their benefits packages, and overview models for creating predetermined salary grades based on specific job roles. A major part of this process for Stevens Strategy was to identify various positions on campus and compare them by discipline, title, and rank.
Currently, the College is in between stages two and three.
“The methodology of the study was to identify the median and mean base wage for the same or similar position titles in the comparison group and then benchmark the salary for that position at Washington College against the median or mean,” Connell said.
While the Budget and Finance Committee requires a longer timeframe to fully analyze the study’s findings and additional data points, there were a few preliminary outcomes that the group shared.
One discovery is that most colleges who are of a similar size to WC do not decide faculty salary ranges by discipline. According to Connell, these ranges are ordinarily chosen based on rank or division.
WC’s structure for retirement contribution is also “more generous” than peer aspirant institutions; the College contributes payments to its employees’ retirement plans whether or not the faculty or staff member themselves do.
“Our peer group is offering only matching dollars for employees who elect to contribute to their retirement accounts, whereas we have a non-elective deferral regardless of employee contribution levels,” Connell said.
In the committee’s upcoming meetings, they plan to provide input on the school’s compensation philosophy and suggest models for salary band creation.
“In addition to facilitating further conversation with the campus, the committee will provide input into the development of a plan for the next steps the College can take to address the study’s findings,” Connell said.
According to Connell, the group will have the compensation study listed on their ongoing agenda for the rest of this semester and in the spring.