Instructors will be checking their class enrollments this summer to find out what their paychecks will be.

The summer pay formula is still in place, but only for classes where the tuition covers the cost of instruction. Last summer’s full-time teaching faculty multiplied their base contract by the number of summer credit hours taught by .025. This year enrollment has been added to the equation.

“Under the new plan we are going to leave this existing formula in place,” said Dr. John Messick, vice president for academic affairs. “However, if a class- because of enrollment – does not pay the school 75 percent of the tuition [needed] then we would proceed down a different path to calculate the summer pay.”

If the class does not pay for itself then the instructor will be compensated at whichever is larger: the part-time overtime rate of $1,800 for three credit hours or .75 times the tuition generated.

Messick said department heads and deans will still need to decide if a class will be offered or postponed. Core classes may have other sections and a class with minimal enrollment may be canceled.

“If it was a required major class or a class that came up every other year or something then it might be justified to teach that class with four or five students,” Messick said.

Based on last summer’s data, Missouri Southern would have saved $126,123 had the formula been in place.

Intersession classes will not be affected by the change. Online classes, however, have a change of their own.

The administration has not yet decided at when to take the student count which will determine instructor paychecks.

“I think in terms of payroll we will need to do that fairly early on,” Messick said. “I don’t think we can wait until census day to do the calculations because of the time involved for payroll to prepare checks.”

The pay bonus for internet classes has also been reduced. This semester, when a class hit 20, then the instructor got $25 for each extra head.

“Under the new plan,” Messick said. “We’ve altered that formula so that the new threshold is not 20 but 35, and the amount will be $20.”

Southern paid out $187,000 over the course of the 2008 school year in Internet headcount bonuses. In the future, both measures may be reconsidered.