Faculty May Get New Fringe Pay

The Faculty Committee on compensation is now studying a plan to bring increased "fringe benefits"--such as a $1000 annual educational allotment for children, increased health insurance, and a revised retirement fund--to faculty members, it was learned last night. The committee, headed by Dean Bundy, had been investigating proposals made at a faculty meeting last month. Bundy was unavilable for comment last night and Seymour Harris '02, professor of Economics and a leading member of the committee, refused all comment.

The compensation group is one of the three special committees set up in October to study problems of expansion. All three had been scheduled to report to the faculty before Christmas

The University announced last week that the reports would not be made for at least a month.

It is possible that income from the recent $4 million Ford Foundation grant will be used to finance the proposed benefits, a plan Princeton adopted last week. One advantage of such a program as opposed to a straight raise in all faculty salaries, would be the tax saving. Fringe benefits paid for by an educational institution are less taxable than private income. Another reason for such benefits would be the increased attractiveness of a University position to young instructors and their wives.

One benefit comtemplated by the faculty committee is an allotment of $1000 for each son or daughter the faculty member has in college, Harvard or elsewhere.

No Reciprocity

The University, fearful of an over-whelming influx of faculty sons from all over the country, has always remained outside the reciprocal agreement where-by colleges grant half-tuition to faculty sons from other institutions. Nor has it granted any reduction in tuition to faculty sons at the College or daughters at Radcliffe. The proposed $1000 grant would enable the University to continue unobligated to other colleges, and yet relieve its faculty of the burden of sending children through college.

Also being considered is a measure whereby faculty members would no longer pay five percent of their salary to the retirement fund, an amount matched by the University itself. The new plan would have the University pay the entire amount.

Extensive health insurance to cover not only faculty members but their families is being investigated by the committee. At present only the usual group insurance plans are available to the faculty.

Schools in Cambridge

Mentioned at the faculty meeting at which these proposals were first discussed, but probably not a matter for immediate action, was the problem of elementary schooling for faculty children. Many professors, dissatisfied with the crowded Cambridge schools, feel obligated to send their children to private schools from kindergarten on up, a severe financial drain on already-constricted budgets. A number of universities have met this problem by setting up experimental grade schools as part of their Schools of Education.

Fringe benefits have become an increasingly important part of university salary programs in recent years as institutions have vied to find ways to attract and hold promising young teachers. Elaborate faculty housing is often provided and, when this is impracticable, as at Columbia, rent allowances are given.

The University, secure in its reputation and its above-average salares, has been slow to provide such attractions.