The University of Kentucky has hired 200 new faculty members this fall in a push to raise its academic profile, the Lexington Herald-Leader reports. (See a UK press release for more information.)
After counting faculty resignations (112) and retirements (39), that amounts to a net increase of 60 faculty members, the reporter, Linda Blackford, writes. The university has created a total of 74 new faculty jobs this year and last year combined, she notes.
The long-range plan is to hire an additional 625 faculty members by 2020, for a total of 2,500, in order to lower the student-faculty ratio from 18:1 to 17:1, she writes.
Among the new hires, Blackford writes, are …
10 new African-American faculty, the largest number of hires since 2002-3. Of these, seven are women and three are in senior, tenured positions. None of those people were hired by the College of Arts and Sciences, the second-largest college at UK.
Over all, the numbers represent a net increase of six African-American faculty members – for a total of 81, about 3.7 percent of the entire faculty. …
Five Hispanic faculty members have joined UK as well, compared to two hires last year.
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11 Responses to U. of Kentucky Expands Its Faculty Ranks
squacky - October 21, 2011 at 5:37 am
Reading this piece, I can’t help but recall something you wrote several days ago about the importance of colleges serving their local communities’ economies:
“We definitely need leading universities to discover tomorrow’s innovations, but as we figure a way out of these economic doldrums, we also need colleges that help their local communities grow.” (from “For Colleges, Location Matters” 10/12)
Your portrayal of HUST here is interesting. Surely there seems to be some good work going on there under Mr. Schiavelli’s leadership. However, your choice to highlight this particular case is also unwitting (if you want us to read your columns as having a thread of consistency): Harrisburg PA filed for bankruptcy protection last week.
Sorry, couldn’t resist. :)
releasethekraken - October 21, 2011 at 6:03 am
Thank you for your post jason—clearly this should have been mentioned in the article.
jselingo - October 21, 2011 at 7:15 am
The university was started to help the regional economy, and the bankruptcy mostly comes from a failed trash incinerator project that left the city with $310 million in debt. I’m not sure there is much the university could have done to help the city with that. But to address the issue, I added a note.
natanderson - October 21, 2011 at 8:45 am
I live in Dauphin County, Harrisburg’s county. I would consider Harrisburg’s bankruptcy a sign of a failure of honesty and imagination on the city leaders’ part (many of those leaders are now departed). I would consider HUST’s birth and promise a very heartening sign of how good Harrisburg’s future can be…and how heartening the future of Higher Education can be, if we have the courage to think different.
kathden - October 21, 2011 at 12:50 pm
There has always been job training, since there have been jobs.
This is not a new “model” for *higher* **education**.
kent9331 - October 21, 2011 at 2:42 pm
Connect the dots! What good is a high school degree? Senior year in high school generally known as a waste of time…no purpose for many…AP exams growth in high schools…downshifting of college curriculum to high schools is occurring…make high school the first two years of the college core/general curriculum…high schools award AA degrees and/or college credit for first year or possibly two years of bachelors in high school…senior year/high school no longer waste of time…shift bachelors degrees now a 2-year program to community colleges…for 4-year institutions, college degree not four years but possible two…also gets colleges out of the remedial education business…next, followed by downshifting graduate education as well…reduces overall cost of college for many…enhances value of high school years. Further downshifting…an interesting discussion with a colleague whose 6-year old came home one day and talked about duh-na…DNA, first grade…
hu_blogger - October 21, 2011 at 9:22 pm
Hey Jeff you might want to do some fact checking, since just about everything Dr.Schiavelli told you is the same promotional stuff he’s been repeating for years and it’s not exactly as truth based as it could be. I recognize that a university president has a duty to represent his institution in a positive manner, but the faculty, staff and students are pretty embarrassed by some of the gross misrepresentations put forward by Dr.Schiavelli and other administrators. It does not serve our institution well to have officers that are in any way untruthful. (Shame on you Mel!)
I’ve authored a response to this article. You can find it at http://watchinghu.blogspot.com/
Sincerly,
Wa Ching Hu
gahnett - October 22, 2011 at 1:01 am
Ha!! :)
That’s PUN-NY!!
Yeah, not very innovative…more like mutation/exploration with no selection.
Anyone else got any ideas?
jwr12 - October 23, 2011 at 5:11 am
Meanwhile, back in the real world, Silicon Valley executives, who know a thing or two about innovation, want their children in old-fashioned, face to face classrooms:
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/10/23/technology/at-waldorf-school-in-silicon-valley-technology-can-wait.html?_r=1&hpw
What is often presented as “inevitable” and “innovative” is often simply a watering down of our willingness to provide that which is truly valuable to middle and working class people. I wish advocates of digital education would face this insidious tendency of the digital age more honestly, and stop dressing themselves in the guise of unequivocal progress and reason.
jselingo - October 23, 2011 at 10:50 pm
jwr12 — I think too many people equate innovation with technology. It’s easy to take the latest technology and say you’re being innovative. I’m looking for new approaches that don’t necessarily use technology. — Jeff
larryc - November 16, 2011 at 6:42 pm
Jeff, this does read like a puff piece, more dictation than reporting. Did you talk to any of the HUST faculty, students or staff? Is it true that the faculty there work with no contracts at all?