Sylvia,
     Thank you for the quite detailed analysis of the Academic Salary 
line budgeted changes for FY 2007. I realize that these budget lines
can include a multitude of sub-components, and that the varying 
flux of academic positions requires a careful comparison to be 
meaningful. I do appreciate knowing that the budgeted amount can
be flexibly re-allocated according to campus/institute practice
to non-Academic Salary operating costs, and I'm sure that the flexibility
to do this is appreciated by the units. As you know, the UTK Faculty 
Senate has been carrying out a careful salary analysis for several years
attempting to account for some of the issues you raised in order to
provide comparable year-to-year results and appropriate comparisons 
to various peer group salaries. Our resulting analyses are in reports
on the Senate Web site if you are interested, and these now include
some additional comparisons from the versions you saw several years
ago when you served on the Senate Budget Committee. 
     I would be interested in your analysis of comparisons of 
temporal patterns in authorized positions. Given the enhanced 
demands associated with increased numbers of students of higher
ability, the faculty are continually concerned about our capability to
provide appropriate mentoring, and the data on tenured and 
tenure track faculty numbers (at UTK at least) indicate very little 
change over recent years. In part this arises because, even with 
new faculty lines, the number of faculty leaving (for various reasons,
including competition from other institutions and retirements) 
may not be balanced by new hires. 
    Your comment about allocations of new revenues and linking of budget 
adjustments to the university's strategic plan relates directly to the 
second question that we asked. Is it correct to interpret your response 
as implying that part of the differences in allocations to System 
units (as for example indicated in the table of differing percentage 
increases in the Academic Salary line) arises from decisions about 
priorities? If so, this implies that faculty at UTK need to demonstrate 
how additional resources can allow us to better meet the goals of the 
new strategic plan relative to our peers in other System units. 
    Cheers,
        Lou
 9/6/06
cc Senate Executive Committee
   Chancellor Crabtree