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Throughout the University, academic and support units are addressing the findings of the 2004 Faculty/Staff Survey. All University units, including the College of Medicine and the Dickinson Law School, participated in the survey, which drew a response rate of 51 percent, or more than 7,800 responses. This is the first of occasional articles, prepared by the Office of Human Resources, describing unit responses to the survey and how the survey results are being used to clarify issues and identify opportunities for improvements.

Administrators in the College of Earth and Mineral Sciences continue to take steps to recognize the role of fixed-term and research faculty (FT&R) in the College.

In addressing concerns expressed in the 2004 Faculty/Staff Survey, a number of policies aimed at acknowledging-and rewarding-contributions of FT&R faculty to the College have been established.

"Besides our goal of being a student-centered college, we want to be community centered," Eric J. Barron, dean of the College, said. "Faculty/staff surveys enable us to identify concerns from our various constituencies, including our valuable FT&R faculty, and to put programs in place to address them."

Larry Achterberg, director of business and operations in EMS, said there are 135 tenure track faculty and 130 fixed-term academics in the College.

"One of the issues that surfaced in the Faculty/Staff survey and in the College's climate surveys was the treatment of fixed-term faculty," he said. "They were uncertain about their roles in department faculty meetings, in the promotion process, and in the voting process in the University Faculty Senate."

In response to the concerns, Dean Barron appointed a Fixed-Term and Research Faculty Committee to examine the issues raised in the surveys. Based in large part on the committee's recommendations, the College has taken a number of steps. Included are:

• Established a process for annual review of all fixed-term faculty to be forwarded to the Dean's office.
• Formalized a promotion process for fixed-term faculty that tracks similar to the promotion and tenure process for tenure track faculty.
• Included fixed-term faculty in the College's awards program and made them eligible for other special recognition.
• Initiated development of a fixed-term faculty handbook with information on personnel policies.
• Conducted a faculty salary survey to examine correlations between salary and length of service and to ensure a common approach for rewarding merit. The College also is reviewing its internal salary structure.
• To ensure continued growth, efforts are being made, under the leadership of Dean Barron, to benchmark fixed-term faculty by evaluating the national landscape.

"We have taken notice of the concerns expressed by fixed-term faculty and are addressing them with these initiatives," Dean Barron said. "We believe these efforts will serve as a basis for long-term strategic planning to recognize and enhance the role of the FT&R faculty in addressing the missions of the College. And they will, in turn, enhance our efforts to integrate teaching, research and service, and to involve all groups-undergraduate and graduate students, faculty and staff-in the College's forward progress."

In another area, a Work/Life Group was established to address continuing development of the College's "family-friendly atmosphere" and "to suggest improvements toward making EMS a more attractive place for everyone to work" in order to increase productivity and satisfaction.

The group, in its final report, concluded that "a sense of mutual respect and trust between the faculty and staff is at the core of staff satisfaction on the job." Among its recommendations, many of which already have been put into place, are:

• Include staff in the annual awards program and in the annual State of the College address.
• Continue to permit and encourage employees to adjust their work schedules in order to more effectively do their job.
• Adopt a family leave policy.
• Encourage and assist staff to participate in professional development activities.

According to Achterberg, diversity issues, which also were explored in an expanded section in the 2004 Faculty/Staff Survey, are one of the three highest priority issues in the College's strategic plan.

The College's Alliance for Earth Sciences, Engineering and Development in Africa (AESEDA), for example, is having an impact on the recruitment and retention of faculty and students from underrepresented groups. The focus of the Alliance, a partnership among Penn State, select African institutions, and some historically black colleges in the United States, is on georesources for sustainable livelihoods in Africa.

A new proposal in the strategic plan, the EMS Pathway Program, focuses on opportunities for recruitment of a diverse student body.

"In EMS, we want to elevate resources and coordinate recruiting and retention of students, staff and faculty from underrepresented populations," Achterberg said. "Our goal is to develop a climate that will empower future generations of scholars."