Talking About Money

I’ve mentioned the Tenured Radical blog before. Its author, Claire Potter, is a consistently thoughtful and provocative commenter on many issues of interest to faculty members, administrators, and others concerned with the state of higher education.

Her most recent entry, Lifeboat: A Conversation About the Incredible Shrinking Budget, is a meditation on how her own institution is discussing its budget issues. As she suggests, almost every college and university in the country (and certainly every one that’s responsibly managed) is having some version of this conversation.

At my own institution, the vice presidents and the president spent most of a day earlier in this week posing various budget, endowment, and enrollment scenarios, and trying to think about the most constructive ways to respond (which may turn out to be the least-destructive ways). The conversation was challenging, but also affirmative. We have plans, and we can and will refine them. We are doing well, but that doesn’t mean that the next several years are going to be easy for us, or for our friends and colleagues at other institutions.

While Tenured Radical’s commentary is not directly about hiring, it certainly shines a bright light on the concerns facing faculty and staff members right now. It is worthwhile reading for faculty candidates, search committees, and others with a stake in the hiring process. I’m having a small version of this conversation with each of our job candidates. In the long run, being straightforward and honest now will bring returns that money will never be able to buy.