AIT GAZETTE
Issue No. 9
8 AUGUST 2000
REPORT OF 25 JULY 2000 REFORM PROCESS COMMITTEE (RPC) MEETING
A. Welcome
The President welcomed members of the Reform Steering Committee who had been invited to the meeting.
B. Review and Approval of the 11 July 2000 RPC Report
Members reviewed and approved the draft report of the 11 July 2000 RPC, which will incorporate comments and suggestions, made at the meeting.
C. Matters Arising from the 11 July 2000 Meeting
Towards reaffirming AIT's position as a non-profit institution and not being viewed as operating any commercial ventures, it is proposed to operate the Golf Course as an integral part of the Institute's sports and recreation facilities, restricted to AIT community members and guests. The name of the Golf Course could also be more appropriately changed to reflect this concept. The issue of whether to continue the operations of the Golf Course or to convert it into a recreational area was also raised and would need to take into account the considerable costs of maintaning the green area.
On the question of whether part of the land could be used for the possible relocation inside AIT of the adjacent waste treatment plant, it was felt that the meeting of the Campus Environment Committee where this is being discussed would be a more appropriate venue to raise this matter.
D. Report on the Reform Steering Committee (RSC) Meetings
The President reaffirmed the role of the three committees namely, the RPC, Reform Implementation Committees (RICs), RSC and the relationship between them. The RPC is a venue or platform for the exchange of ideas and dialogue towards ensuring a collective understanding of the reform process among all the AIT constituents. The purpose of the RICs is to dialogue and hold consultation meetings with the concerned units. The RSC on the other hand is an executive committee comprising of administrators and consultants that will look at specific issues and report on progress made on the reform process, through the administration to the Board. The purpose of the RSC is to collectively direct and monitor the reform process, to assess the situational criticality and movement, and to prescribe prompt corrective measures.
The President put on record his thanks and appreciation to all the members of the RICs and concerned units for their effort and time in the deliberations, the results of which have been most positive and at the same fully supportive of the reform process. In fact, many of the concerned units have come up with their own proposals on cost cutting measures.
To date two meetings of the RSC have been held on 19 and 25 July 2000. The meetings have so far reviewed the progress made by the RICs with the concerned units and also looked into the specifics of some of the urgent issues put forward by the RICs for the consideration of the RSC.
1. Voluntary Early Retirement Scheme
AIT's previous early retirement scheme was found unattractive by eligible employees. Various similar plans were analyzed, and a hybrid of AIT's former scheme and that of USAID is being considered. AIT's former scheme did not privilege the length of service to the Institute. The new scheme being proposed, while retaining the compensation for age, also takes into account the remaining years until the mandatory retirement ( R ) and rewards the years of service ( S ). The formula for the proposed voluntary early retirement scheme is {[(15% x R) + (2% x S)]} of annual base salary. The offer will be made to both centrally funded and project-funded employees, who are at least aged 50 at the beginning of the fiscal year with at least 15 years of continued service to the Institute. Approval of the applications will be at the discretion of the administration and in close consultation with the concerned administrative unit heads and on a mutual consent basis with the employee. It was suggested to build in a clause, which states that all those offered the early retirement package would not be re-employed by AIT.
The HRO Coordinator was requested to conduct a poll on the proposed scheme towards arriving at an estimate on the number of employees who would be interested and of the cost to AIT by the end of August 2000. The proposal will be presented to the Board Finance Committee meeting on 11 September 2000 and if approved by the full Board on 15 September 2000, could then be offered as a package with a deadline for submission of applications by 30 November 2000. A tax incentive for those who accept the package within a certain time period could also be introduced.
2. AIT Center Operations
Towards reaffirming AIT's position as a non-profit institution and to ensure that the operations of the AIT Center are not viewed as commercial in nature, the Central Administration will maintain control of the guest rooms, making them part of the Institute's accommodation facilities, and the AIT auditorium and conference facilities as part of the Institute's teaching room facilities. The swimming pool would be part of the Institute's sports and recreation facilities. The current cleaning and housekeeping functions will not be outsourced since the functions / services of the AIT Center will be made an extension, if not an integral part of the general campus-wide Institute services, and, thus, automatically, the rendering of related service come with restrictions, in terms of costing of services and clientele. Similarly, catering would no longer need to be outsourced so long as the use of the facility is strictly restricted to AIT community members and guests on the mode of a Faculty Club.
3. Employee-Run Commercial Ventures
The setting up of entrepreneurial ventures by AIT employees, in the framework of the reform process, is to be encouraged, like printing / graphics. It is imperative, however, that the concerned employees are adequately prepared for the planned ventures. Dr. Lalit Johri offered to organize a workshop on entrepreneurial ventures for AIT staff (numbering at least 10) after office hours every Friday, at no cost to the Institute, with simultaneous Thai translation to be arranged by the HRO Coordinator.
4. Development Office
The Development Office will be dissolved with the current staff being relocated between the Office of the President, Provost and Schools. The functional aspects of the restructuring exercise have been completed and a decision on the staffing adjustments will soon be made. It is important that the Institute take on a more proactive role in the development of new initiatives to promote AIT. Certain development and promotion functions such as coordination of support by donor governments and their institutions, of the host government and its institutions, of the AIT endowment fund, alumni relations etc. are best handled at the Institute level, by the President and Provost or through a steering committee headed by the President. The Action Plan has also recommended that a PR Officer and / or company are necessary for the reform management. There has been expressed pressure from donors and other stakeholders to drastically improve the overall functioning of AIT. Due to the ongoing reform process, the overall feeling among the donors is positive which is also largely due to the acceptance and support of the proposed reform measures by the AIT community. It has been welcomed as a positive and meaningful initiative on the part of AIT and served as a positive and important step towards reassuring their confidence.
Comments from RPC Members
While the Central Administration would have the overall supervision of the Institute development and promotion functions, there is still be a need for full-time staff to work on maintaining contacts and towards cultivating relationships with AIT various donors and stakeholders. The President explained that the idea behind central administration looking into the Institute policy of external relations is to ensure that there is an overall unified Institute policy on the relationship with its various donors and that everyone at AIT conveys the same message. We must display unity.
5. CLAIR
There is a need to reemphasize the main function of CLAIR, which is the operations of the Library. CLAIR should be just known as the AIT Library, serving the same function as other libraries elsewhere.
6. AIT Extension
A new entity which may take the name of AIT Extension will be set up for all non-degree related training activities in actual partnership with the Schools. The current activities of CEC as well as the outreach activities of the current RCC, CLET, CLAIR and DEC will also placed under the umbrella of AIT Extension. The purpose is to give coherence and quality assurance to all AIT non-degree offerings, including so-called outreach activities of AIT.
Comments from RPC members on the AIT Extension Proposal
The setting up of the AIT extension is to ensure the regularization, and proper coordination and monitoring of all training courses within AIT. There should be a uniform fee structure and advertisements conducted in a consistent and uniform manner. The Schools and the Centers within the Schools would continue to conduct their respective training courses but under the extension umbrella. It is envisaged that the AIT Extension and Schools would be able to work as real partners in the delivery of continuing education courses in a unified manner and without competing for the same external funds. At present, there are various agreements between the Schools and donors to conduct training courses and a certain amount of flexibility should be provided in the implementation of the AIT Extension concept, which should not create an additional procedural layer. Diplomas offered would be specifically those of AIT Extension, not AIT.
7. CLET
It is important to not lose sight of the main purpose of CLET which is to respond to the English language needs of the students. It was felt that an effective delivery of the language support services will not be achieved by relocating the current CLET faculty to the different Schools and that as a group, they would be able to do more and better as long as the task focuses on the teaching of English as a second language.
8. Internet Services
An independent external review of the pros and cons of the centralized and decentralized Internet services, and the administrative and financial implications if external ISP's are availed will be conducted if possible through donor support. The Terms of Reference for the review will be prepared by an internal working group Chaired by Dean Phien.
9. Other Issues : Non-fee Paying Students
At the 17 May 2000 meeting of the Executive Committee of the Board there was concern expressed at the large number of non-tuition fee-paying students, especially under the employee and work student categories. The President reported that special meetings of the School Forum have been held to review on a case-by-case basis all the non-tuition fee-paying students. The aim is to arrive at a very specific set of rules by which to abide by in the future, the goal being that the applicable tuition and fees of every student be borne in the future by a scholarship, self-support, or a project (external or internal). As has been the policy, individuals should not have to bear the consequences of changes in rules and regulations, whenever feasible. On the other hand, new regulations are expected to come into effect for the September 2000 Term, and applicable to all incoming students, with no exception. There needs to be a proper check to ensure that the system is not being misused. If corrective measures can be taken, a significant portion of the income could be recovered from student tuition and fees.
E. Next Meeting
The next meeting of RPC will be held on 8 August 2000 at 11:00 a.m. in the Board Room, Administration Building.