Staff report
A report from the University's audit department concerning Anderson Schools of Management revealed that some members violated the faculty handbook.
The report prompted the Board of Regents to ask for recommendations of action from Faculty Senate on Thursday to address violations of the handbook regarding extra compensation and outside employment limitations.
The audit started over the summer, because the regents received reports from Anderson that some faculty members may have been violating Policy No. 56 of the faculty handbook, regent Mel Eaves said.
The policy limits faculty members' outside work to 39 days a year.
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"We were concerned that, that problem might not just be a problem at the Anderson school," he said. "It might be a problem elsewhere on campus."
The regents' audit committee received a report Wednesday regarding the violations. The committee put off approving the audit until the next meeting on Nov. 10.
The committee requested the response from the Faculty Senate, because the regents want the organization to be accountable for addressing audit issues pertaining to University faculty.
The audit will be made public Nov. 10.
Eaves said the regents are concerned outside employment affects faculty members' performance.
"The problem is that the primary employment of faculty is at the University," he said. "When secondary employment begins to take up too much of the faculty members' time, it takes away from their duties to the University."
Eaves said faculty members are not taking outside jobs because they need the money, so the regents will not address salary in response to
the audit.
"We've worked very hard in the last couple years to increase faculty compensation," he said. "This is not about giving a raise to the people who violated the rule."
The audit was done to check compliance with the policy, not to punish any faculty members, Eaves said.
"The regents will make whatever clarifications they think necessary to the rule, and the rule will be enforced in the future," he said.
There will be consequences for violating the policy, but they have not been determined, he said.
Eaves said the regents will ask the University's audit department to look into other departments and to see if similar violations are happening.
"I don't know if there'll be a full-blown audit or not," he said, "but we're all curious to know if this is going on in other departments."
