By Mallory Sherwood, Features Editor

Faculty and staff members might find more reason to smile in the future.

Change is on its way.

Results released from a survey completed by the faculty and staff in the 2004 fall semester indicate that some of ACU’s policies might need to change to lift employees’ spirits after a year of difficult financial decisions.

The survey, taken by nearly 500 faculty and staff members, raised questions about the quality of life on campus, salaries, workload, trust and meaningful relationships at the university.

The high number of participants, more than 60 percent of faculty and staff members, is an incredible response, said Dr. Nancy Shankle, chair of the English Department and co-chair of the Quality of Life committee.

She said many more participated than she had expected and that the faculty and staff wrote positive responses that will be useful in the future.

“The overall feeling is that the majority of people are very happy to be at ACU,” Shankle said. “Many people started their written response as, ‘I think ACU is the place the Lord wants me to be, but these are the problems keeping me from being as effective as I can be in my area.'”

She said employees’ concerns are the things the Quality of Life committee needs to know about.

“If anything is keeping an employee from being effective, we want to know what kind of problem-solvers we can be to fix it,” Shankle said.

Dr. Royce Money, president of the university, assembled the Quality of Life committee last fall when budget problems caused faculty and staff members to not receive a pay raise. The university offered a one-time bonus in December instead, Shankle said.

The committee asked faculty and staff about their opinions in three categories in order to measure the morale on campus, and it wants to develop a plan to improve the environment faculty and staff work in, Shankle said.

Results show that respondents strongly agree that departments work together as a team, that they understand ACU’s mission statement, that they are valued as an employee at ACU and that they have confidence in ACU’s leadership. Eighty-two percent also believe they have the tools and resources needed to do their work well.

However, the majority of respondents also believe the pay is unsatisfactory, that they have more work than they can do well, that the pay disparity across the institution is a major issue, and that the senior administrators are unapproachable to a degree. Furthermore, 57 percent of respondents said they might consider leaving ACU if a comparable job at the same level or slightly higher pay level became available at another organization.

“We didn’t find any surprises with our questions,” Shankle said. “Some of the questions we anticipated showing negative responses were true.”

With this information, the committee is working to develop proposals to give to Money later in the spring.

The issue of trust is common on campuses across the country, said Jackie Halstead, associate professor of marriage and family therapy and an analyst for the survey.

“With hierarchy there is often a separation between faculty and staff; this causes a level of distrust,” she said.

She added that the committee hasn’t had time to fully respond to this issue yet and that it is still studying the data.

As for the underpaid faculty and staff, Halstead said that is a challenging situation.

“I can speak personally to the faculty side in that it’s a difficult balance with wanting to pour ourselves out into the students, provide good education and still stay on top of cutting-edge research,” Halstead said.

The committee’s purpose remains clear as results are continuing to be released, Shankle said.

“We want to maintain the best working environment for our staff,” she said. “It’s a matter of stewardship: caring for people the way the Bible commands us to care for one another. Dr. Money has been convicted that stewardship of our employees is one of the most important things because they are our most valuable resource.”

Faculty and staff are not the only ones who will be affected. Students will also feel a difference on campus in the near future.

“When you improve working conditions for faculty and staff, that is going to improve interaction with students,” Shankle said. “Everybody on campus, no matter what their role is from groundskeeper to maintenance, administration to faculty, is committed to their job in terms of, ‘How can I better serve the students.'”