Jerry Farley's FY05 Evaluation
The Board of Regents will be conducting Jerry Farley's evaluation at the June 17, 2005 board meeting. Since the performance pay program is based upon an evaluation, here are some items that the board should consider when considering Jerry's performance as Washburn University's president.
Key Financial Statistics
Historical data can be useful when considering a person's performance. The following key statistics are presented as a trend analysis of FY00 to FY04, the most recent year for which data is available.
| Item Measured | Percentage | Change |
|---|---|---|
| Enrollment | 26.3% | increase |
| Tuition Rate | 31.1% | increase |
| Cost per Credit Hour | 4.9% | increase | Tuition Revenue | 65.4% | increase | Education/General Budget | 31.6% | increase |
| Debt Payments | 127.7% | increase |
| Jerry's Salary | 28.6% | increase |
The tuition rate increase of $15 for FY05, brought the current tuition rate increase up to 45.6% increase, compared to the FY00 tuition rate.
It's interesting to note that the cost per credit hour is not increasing at anything close to the tuition rate. So, the cost of providing education, most notably faculty salaries, seems like a fairly weak argument for justifying the most recent double digit tuition increases. Nor is the operating budget keeping pace with the tuition increases.
Washburn University Reserve Balance
So, if the tuition increases are not used for educational costs, it seems that the University reserve balance should be growing. However, even with the $89.5 million in sales tax dollars, the unrestricted reserves appear to have actually decreased from operations in each of the past two years.
Analysis of the activity in the reserve balance is complicated by the change in reporting that has occurred over the past two years. A review of both the FY04 audit report and the FY04 Vice-President of Administration's annual financial reports show different amounts for FY03 than what was published in the FY03 reports. In FY02, the reserve balance jumped almost $6 million when the administration transferred the Employee Benefit Fund reserves to the General Fund reserves. In FY04, the FY03 reserve balance jumped again, most likely due to an accounting change.
Since the University's reserve balance is often referred to a source of funds for a range of expenditures, it seems that the administration should provide a clear analysis of the balance and the projected expenditures for the balance. Instead, President Farley is allowed to loosely refer to the fact that a decrease of $10 million for the Stoffer project will still leave the university with a comfortable margin for unforeseen events. This lack of clear information, with vague assurances each time the reserve balances are tapped for use, does not allow the Board to fulfill their fiduciary duties to the public. As Washburn University's president, Jerry Farley should be held firmly accountable for this omission of clear information.
Furthermore, President Farley's recommendation to fund a water feature at a cost of $100,000 from the reserve funds is questionable, given the current state of the classrooms, library and computer labs. For example, in FY02 when the Computer Information Science department was a budget initiative, why weren't these $100,000 of reserve funds utilized to provide a state of the art laboratory for use by the faculty and students in this discipline? Certainly, that would have provided more benefit to this community, including area employers, than a water feature.
Equal Employment Opportunity Employer
A comparison of the actual employment practices of Washburn University compared to the theory of equal employment opportunity indicates that the administration, under Jerry Farley's leadership, has absolutely no idea how this employment policy should be practiced at a public university.
This area, in particular, is where President Farley excels in paying lip service to a public policy while overseeing the unjustified discharges of staff and faculty that do not toe the administrative line. For him to stand in front of students at a commencement speech and speak about the importance of free speech, communication, problem solving and critical thinking skills while presiding over the numerous firings (or non-renewal of contracts) of qualified persons that have occurred on his watch at this university and WEA is the height of hypocrisy.