Date: February 19, 2007
To: All Faculty and Staff
Fm: The Board of Trustees
Re: Principia Board of Trustees Report, February 15-17, 2007
Dear Friends,
We are glad to share a brief report with you on the meetings we held this past weekend. On Thursday, we met one-on-one with unit heads on the St. Louis campus, and on Friday we met individually with members of the College executive committee in Elsah. This gave us a quick update on activities on both campuses. During our private sessions, we discussed current matters and conducted an election to fill vacancies on the Board.
The results of the election of new Trustees will be announced after the process is complete, which includes acceptance by those appointed. The new Trustees will take office at our April meeting.
On Thursday the Board received a report from the Salary Reform Study Committee on revised compensation benchmarks for both campuses, and asked for an expedited review of the recommendations by an independent compensation consultant. Our goal is to give final approval of the report at the April Trustees’ meeting. Steps can then be taken to implement adjustments in compensation levels on both campuses to reflect the new benchmarks.
On Saturday afternoon, two representatives of the Board joined 11 representatives (six from the St. Louis campus and five from the College – one College representative was unable to attend) for the first meeting of the recently announced fact-finding and resolution process. The representatives were chosen by their respective constituents through their own election procedures. During their three-hour meeting, the participants discussed the process for finding an independent party to assist in resolving current issues facing Principia and prepared a preliminary list of issues for fact finding and resolution. The representatives were grateful for the open discussion and love for Principia expressed at the meeting.
The Trustees also established a website at http://www.prin.edu/trustees/ on which will be posted documents and communications relating to the Board and its activities.
We are deeply thankful for the spirit of cooperation and unselfish service shown by all who met with us, and we look forward to sharing additional reports with you as further steps unfold.
With warm regards,
Board of Trustees
Katharine Bullock Helen Elswit Margaret Foerster
Willard Hanzlik William Hays Durant Hunter
Stuart Jenkins Michael Sharples Charles Spaulding, III
Christopher Towle