CAUT Guidelines

[Donald R McKechnie]

List,

As many of you know, the CAUT committee is charged with studying and revising
the CAUT Guidelines publication. We would like your help in determining what
needs to be added and what needs to be changed. For the most part, the
document stands very well as is but there are two primary issues that need to
be addressed.

First, the addition of information regarding contract technicians has been on
the table for some time. Bill Shull from the CAUT committee is coordinating
this effort. Please e-mail him with your comments and suggestions.
(bdshull@aol.com) If anyone wants to start a dialog on this list that would be
just fine.

The second issue is the Guidelines formula. There have been comments and
criticism about the formula. However, I do not remember seeing any changes
suggested. If anyone has ideas about changing the formula, please post on this
list or e-mail me.

I have some thoughts that might get the ball rolling on the formula issue. One
of the criticisms' administrators will have is the Base component. No matter
how well the argument is made on having 60 as the Base, they will see that as
unrealistic. One solution would be to change the base number. On a computer
database, using the formula, one can easily change to whatever Base you want.
Going up to 100 is pushing the limit in my opinion. I have done this with the
inventory here at IC. The results show 4 technicians at Base 60 and 2 at
Base100. What about the remaining variables in the formula? Are they good or
in need of change?

In my quest to have an assistant technician hired here at IC, I have used the
Guidelines as part of my justification. No success so far but I believe my
full argument does not get in the hands of the powers that be. That is another
story for another time. During the process of getting my justification ready
this year, I was in contact with Ken Eschete at Northwestern. He suggested I
use charts and/or graphs to get the point across that the school is losing
money by not hiring another technician. I did not have time to come up with
anything useful due to the deadline. 

Ken’s suggestion made me wonder if something like this could be incorporated
into the Guidelines. Having little experience in presenting information of
this style, it is going to be a bit challenging for me to come up with
something useful. Is it possible to add some sort of generic template to the
Guidelines that will bolster the effectiveness of the document? Any ideas
welcome. 

If there is anyone out there who does not have a clue on what I am talking
about, contact the PTG Home Office and order a copy of the Guidelines. Phone -
816/753-7747, e-mail - ptg@ptg.org

Don McKechnie
Ithaca College
dmckech@ithaca.edu