|
|
 |
Columns::March 11, 2002
Digest
Pay raise pool decreased
To meet declining revenue projections, Gov. Roy Barnes has decreased the proposed pay raise pool for university employees. The proposal is one of several cuts Barnes ordered late last month to save $80 million in next year’s state budget.
Among the proposed cuts, raises for teachers and university employees would fall from 3.5 percent to 3.25 percent. Raises for other state employees would be lowered from 2.5 percent to 2.25 percent. The total payroll savings was put at $22.9 million. In addition, education programs within the state University System would be trimmed by just under 1 percent, to save another $12 million.
Barnes termed the cuts a “precautionary measure” after the seventh straight month of declining state revenues.
Raises for the state’s elected officials also were eliminated.
Judge orders professor reinstated
A federal judge has ordered the university to reinstate an assistant professor who won a gender-based discrimination lawsuit last year.
U.S. District Court Judge Duross Fitzpatrick wrote in a Feb. 20 order that Linda M. Brooks should be reinstated without tenure in the comparative literature department for a two-year period at the end of spring semester, after which she will apply for tenure under normal university policies.
In her lawsuit, Brooks, who had taught at UGA for five years when her contract was not renewed, claimed the committee criticized the presses she used for research publications and the types of publications she offered, while her male peers were not similarly challenged.
No decision has been made by the university on whether or not to appeal the order to reinstate Brooks. The university also has yet to decide whether it will appeal the jury’s May 22 decision to award Brooks $453,460 in back pay. Fitzpatrick has denied motion for a new trial in the case. A defense motion on attorney costs is still awaiting a decision by the judge.
Attorneys for Brooks and the university also have been told to reach an agreement on pay and benefits and report the results to Fitzpatrick next month.
Web entries boost Peabody submissions
The 61st annual George Foster Peabody Awards board will have a new medium to consider in its upcoming deliberations. For the first time, this year’s submissions include 27 Web-based programs, boosting the total number of entries to 1,105.
The Peabody board has adapted to emerging technologies in the past. In 1948 the ABC and NBC networks took home the first medallions for television. And in 1981, HBO became the first cable network recognized with “She’s Nobody’s Baby: The History of American Women in the 20th Century.”
“The Peabody Award recognizes excellence in electronic media,” says Horace Newcomb, director of the Peabody Awards program, “and the World Wide Web is both a new medium and an extension of the old. We’re obligated--and delighted--to extend our attention to these productions.” The 15-member board, comprising television critics, broadcast and cable industry executives and experts in culture and the arts, will meet later this month to choose the Peabody winners for 2001.
The winners announcement will be broadcast live, via satellite, from Georgia Public Television on March 27. Walter Cronkite will host the awards presentation May 20 in New York City.
The Peabody Awards, administered by UGA’s Grady College of Journalism and Mass Communication, are considered the broadcast and cable industry’s most prestigious prize. |
|
|
|
|
