July 1, 2009
In Hard Times, Colleges Search for Ways to Trim the Faculty
The Jones Theatre at Washington State University is getting a $500,000 face-lift this summer. A construction crew has already ripped out its 500 orange and blue seats and is replacing them with new ones covered in a wine-colored fabric. The theater’s walls are being painted a light beige, and a new set of black velour curtains will grace the stage.
But some professors are worried that the theater will remain dark. That’s because the department of theater and dance is one of three academic programs slated for elimination because of budget cuts at Washington State. Officials say they must slash a total of $54-million from the university’s budget over the next two years. The 11 tenured and tenure-track professors who work in the three programs are also on the chopping block.
Administrators are calling the eliminations “vertical cuts.” Instead of slicing costs equally across the board as many other colleges have done, the administration singled out a few that it said were not crucial to the university’s mission and attracted few students or little outside research money.
As the economy slumped this year, institutions in other states adopted similar strategies. The Louisiana Board of Regents cut the philosophy major at the University of Louisiana at Lafayette, for instance, and colleges in Idaho, Florida, Michigan, and Wisconsin are also planning to eliminate programs and departments.
That has typically happened after broader austerity measures have failed to stanch enough red ink. “You can bleed to death from a thousand cuts,” says Warwick M. Bayly, provost at Washington State. “We felt we had to prioritize.”
But selective cuts have their own price. Faculty morale is hurt, and professors worry that the damage extends to the overall reputation of the institution. Terry J. Converse, a professor of theater who has been at Washington State for 18 years, is angry that his department is scheduled to be wiped out completely while others remain largely intact. “It’s unconscionable,” says Mr. Converse. “It’s just not fair to knock off a very functional department that is critical to the liberal arts when it clearly could have been completely avoided.”
By Robin Wilson | Posted on Wednesday July 1, 2009 | Permalink | CommentJune 29, 2009
Outsiders on the Search Committee
Every college and university where I’ve worked has included extra-departmental faculty members on search committees, though the rationale has been somewhat different in each place. It’s also important to note that all four of those institutions have been small and primarily focused on teaching.
Chosen carefully, such external committee members can have a powerful positive effect on the outcome of a search. From a candidate’s perspective, they can show that the institution as a whole is interested in each department’s hiring, and can lay the foundation for future collegial relationships.
From a departmental perspective, it is (or, more precisely, can be) extremely helpful to get a clear, external perspective on the various candidates. It’s almost inevitable that the disciplinary enthusiasms and schisms that operate in a particular department can lead to certain kinds of blindness that can be alleviated by wise words from beyond the department. It’s also sometimes true that departmental faculty members will act better when an outsider is in their midst. If a department is riven by factions, sometimes that moderating force makes a real difference in the conduct of a search.
The challenge is to get the right person or people to perform this role. The same departmental forces that may make a search itself difficult can, and probably will, cause problems in selecting the external search-committee member. A clever department head or committee chair can, perhaps, select a good colleague who will have the right kinds of influence.
An outsider on the committee may be useful in determining how well candidates can articulate their discipline to a well-informed person who is not a part of the field. An external member can also serve as a good reviewer of teaching demonstrations, and can be tasked with observing the way candidates interact with students, staff members, and others not directly connected to the search.
What are your experiences with having faculty members from outside a department serve on its search committee? Has that worked well, or caused difficulties in your process?
By David Evans | Posted on Monday June 29, 2009 | Permalink | Comment [14]Oregon Set to Adopt Legislation That Helps Adjunct Faculty Members
The governor of Oregon is expected to sign a bill that includes principles of the American Federation of Teachers’ Faculty and College Excellence campaign. The legislature approved the bill over the weekend, as the State Senate voted unanimously to make Oregon the first state to enact such a law.
The union’s national campaign, which began in early 2007, urges colleges to hire more full-time faculty members and to give part-timers health benefits and to adopt policies of “equal pay for equal work.”
Oregon’s bill would require colleges to document just who makes up the faculty — many adjuncts fall between the cracks when it comes to official data — and would give part-timers access to the state health-care plan.
By Audrey Williams June | Posted on Monday June 29, 2009 | Permalink | Comment [2]June 26, 2009
Hiring and Firing Bytes
Here’s the latest appointment news …
- Brooklyn College has picked Karen L. Gould, provost and vice president for academic affairs at California State University at Long Beach, as its next president, The New York Times reports.
- The president of Bucknell University, Brian C. Mitchell, said Wednesday that he will step down next June, Philly.com reports.
- Warren D. Wolfson, a justice on the Illinois Appellate Court, has been appointed interim dean of the DePaul University College of Law, which is still reeling from the sudden dismissal last week of respected Dean Glen Weissenberger, the Chicago Tribune reports.
In other news …
- The wait is over. Harvard University announced this week that it is laying off 275 staff members and trimming the hours of another 40 workers, thanks to its tanking endowment, The Harvard Crimson reports. No faculty jobs will be cut. Meanwhile, many Harvard students and employees are wondering why the university is firing people when, despite its endowment losses, it’s still sitting on a big pile of money, the Boston Globe reports: “The fact that this is happening at Harvard, who is still sitting on a chest of billions and remains the richest university in the world, shows it is pursuing this incredibly narrow path of naked self interest,’’ said Geoff Carens, a library assistant and union representative who [organized a rally this week] to protest the cuts. “They’re using this drop in the endowment as an excuse to justify really terrible cuts that will have a disastrous impact on the surrounding communities.’’
- Another Ivy League university — Princeton — will offer early-retirement incentives to workers 55 and over, who have at least 10 years of service at the university and whose age plus tenure equals 80 years or more, the Associated Press reports. The move is part of an effort to slash expenditures in the face of an expected 30-percent drop in the university’s endowment.
- Washington State University will kill three academic programs and eliminate 360 positions as it tries to slice its budget by $54-million over the next two years, the Puget Sound Business Journal reports. Of those jobs due to be cut, about 167 are vacant, while another 116 are currently occupied, the newspaper notes. In addition, another 47 employees have opted to retire early and others will have their hours cut.
- The University of Nevada at Reno is slashing 279 positions in response to a 15-percent reduction in its state budget, the Associated Press reports.
June 23, 2009
Late-Season Serendipity
The summer months can give chairs and deans night sweats, but it’s not from the heat. They are dealing with unsuccessful searches, last-minute retirements, and surprise resignations. This time of year is very active among administrators as they try to figure out how to fill positions when the calendar dictates that full searches may be impractical.
This season underscores two important elements about the search process:
- The urgency of networking: Good administrators, including chairs, keep files of CV’s from friends, former colleagues, and former students. These may be shared when queries come through. I can say from personal experience that few things yield more pleasure for me than helping someone find a good job or helping a fellow dean find a great professor.
- The necessity of being a graceful candidate: Often there is a microscopic line between the candidate who gets the offer and the one who doesn’t. First-choice candidates sometimes sign contracts and then back out, leaving the position open for second-choice candidates to advance. Unexpected positions may open up in ways that can be molded to fit a great second choice from a previous search. Chairs have friends at other institutions who are looking for impressive candidates. Deans share CV’s with one another of ABD candidates from last year’s search who have since completed the doctorate and are impressive candidates. Graceful candidates generate an incredible network (see point one!) for themselves.
What other insights might you offer job seekers about the distinctive features of late-season searches?
By Gene C. Fant Jr. | Posted on Tuesday June 23, 2009 | Permalink | Comment [16]June 22, 2009
Hard Times at Harvard
Harvard University is feeling an unaccustomed pinch, as it tightens its belt another few notches in an effort to deal with its withering endowment, the Boston Globe reports. The university depends on its endowment — which last June was valued at $36.9-billion, but is expected to plummet more than 30 percent by the end of this month — to help cover about a third of its daily operating expenses, the newspaper notes. As a result, Harvard officials told the Globe, the world’s richest university can no longer afford to replace top scholars who retire or are poached by other universities, which has many professors fretting about the university’s academic standing and the impact on its students.
“Without replacing key faculty, Harvard will be unable to run graduate programs in certain specialties and risks damaging its academic reputation,” classics professor Mark Schiefsky told the newspaper. His department, which is already sans two classical archeologists, is about to lose an ancient-history specialist, too. “These areas have had a pretty strong tradition here,’’ Schiefsky said. “We have to be careful that things don’t die.’’
Theda Skocpol, former president of the American Political Science Association and a professor in Harvard’s department of government, which has lost at least four faculty members this year, seconded that thought and told the Globe that the university’s standing may already be hurting in some fields. “Harvard’s relative standing among the major universities will suffer,’’ she said. “It already has in some fields, and it will continue to if we can’t keep moving.’’
In addition, Harvard’s economics, statistics, and physics departments are also feeling the pain, the Boston daily writes.
Still, not everyone is worried. Gary King, a government professor who directs the Institute for Quantitative Social Science, told the Globe that cuts or no cuts, Harvard will remain a top university: “Of course, Harvard was a great university in 2005 and so will still be after the cuts.’’
By Gabriela Montell | Posted on Monday June 22, 2009 | Permalink | Comment [7]Cal State to Pay $50,000 to Settle Age-Discrimination Complaint
The California State University system has agreed to pay $50,000 to settle an age-discrimination complaint involving an instructor at San Francisco State University who was passed over for a tenure-track job at age 61 in favor of a younger candidate without a doctorate, the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission announced. The agency sued the university system on behalf of the instructor, Lawford Goddard, last year.
The university has denied that age discrimination was involved in the decision affecting Mr. Goddard, but it chose to settle as “a good business decision,” Susan Westover, a lawyer for the system, told the San Francisco Chronicle.
The settlement, approved on Thursday by a federal judge, contains no admission of wrongdoing by the university. Under its terms, the university will grant Mr. Goddard emeritus status, which will give him the same benefits as a retired professor with tenure. The university also agreed to conduct training on the prevention of age discrimination in hiring.
By Charles Huckabee | Posted on Monday June 22, 2009 | Permalink | CommentJune 19, 2009
Salary Reversals
I recently saw an advertisement for a full-time lectureship in the humanities, Ph.D. required, at a flagship state university; the salary would be $32,000, plus benefits, to teach a 4-4 load, half in general education.
This advertisement has made the rounds in e-mails and discussions, and as some observers have noted, perhaps praise should be offered to the university for not farming out the work to underpaid/overworked adjuncts, but rather creating a bona fide full-time position. There are lots of folks out there who would love to have a job with a salary/benefits like that. On the other hand, what year is this? A salary of $32,000 is roughly what one would have earned for an entry-level position at a state university in 1989.
Obviously the law of supply and demand works here, but how can faculty leaders, especially those in the humanities, keep the current economic malaise from undercutting salary advances from the past two decades? Or should we just be happy to have jobs and benefits?
By Gene C. Fant Jr. | Posted on Friday June 19, 2009 | Permalink | Comment [19]June 18, 2009
U. of Tennessee System Announces Layoffs for the Future
Unlike many states, Tennessee is reserving more than $300-million of its education stimulus money from the federal government to fill gaps in the 2011 budget year when its economy may still be flagging.
So where does that leave the University of Tennessee system in 2012, when the stimulus money runs out? For starters, the university has already identified 300 staff positions that it plans to cut and 200 more that will remain unfilled, according to a news release from the system.
In addition, the jobs of two vice presidents are being cut immediately and the title of vice president will eventually be dropped from five other positions, Jan Simek, the system’s acting president, told the university’s Board of Trustees.
“At the end of this period, UT will be a different university than it is now,” Mr. Simek was quoted as saying in the news release. “We will be leaner and more efficient.”
He said the system would spend the next two years, trying to help affected workers find employment outside the university.
By Eric Kelderman | Posted on Thursday June 18, 2009 | Permalink | Comment [3]June 17, 2009
Bethune-Cookman U. Fires 4 Faculty Members for Sexual Harassment
Four faculty members at Bethune-Cookman University have been fired for sexually harassing female students, university officials announced today.
The university in Daytona Beach, Fla., did not name the faculty members or provide details of the alleged harassment. In a written statement, it said it had hired an independent investigator after a female student confided in a faculty member, who urged her to file a formal complaint with the university’s president, Trudie Kibbe Reed.
The investigation included interviews with faculty and staff members and students, and surveys of students in the classes taught by the professors. It found that the professors had engaged in “inappropriate conduct with female students,” the statement said. The faculty members were dismissed at the end of the spring semester and the Daytona Beach Police Department was notified.
University officials said they have also notified state, federal, and accrediting agencies, and will share the results of the investigation if asked.
“This kind of behavior has no place on any college campus — particularly a church-related, values-based institution like Bethune-Cookman University,” the president said in the statement. “This isn’t something to be swept under the rug. It will be dealt with immediately and with a clear message — not on this campus, not with our students.”
By Katherine Mangan | Posted on Wednesday June 17, 2009 | Permalink | Comment [1]