This Tuesday’s Faculty Senate meeting gave faculty the chance to confront administrators over the recent faculty cuts.
The administration announced that 30 non-tenure track faculty members’ contracts will not be renewed next fall, an 11 percent reduction in non-tenure track faculty. This is the second reduction of faculty this year, as the administration reduced faculty by 73 this fall, saving the University $3.2 million.
Discussion began during University President Mary Ellen Mazey’s report, and continued toward the end, running a half hour over allotted meeting time.
“It seems it’s the age of criticism of the administrators,” Mazey said at the beginning of her report.
This prompted senate member Bill Albertini to claim that this criticism wasn’t undue.
“This is a moment where 30 people just lost their jobs,” Albertini, associate professor in the English Department, said to Mazey. “I have a bit of a problem with that.”
Faculty Senate members expressed concerns that the cuts will hurt future enrollment and look bad to prospective students.
Mazey’s solution is that everyone work to promote the University so positive stories outweigh the bad press. Notably, Preview Day this Saturday is a chance for faculty to recruit potential students, she said.
“It’s up to us to make sure [lowered enrollment] doesn’t happen,” Mazey said to the senate. “Our destiny is in our hands.”
But senate members took issue with the notion that they are responsible for the administration’s decision to cut faculty.
“The faculty didn’t make that decision; the administration made that decision,” Albertini said.
English Professor Lawrence Coates, the Faculty Association liaison to the senate, stipulated consequences of the faculty reductions during his report. These included larger classes and fewer classes, which leads to scheduling difficulties for students. It also increases the course load for the faculty, he said.
“We are exploring all legal options to determine that terminations are done in accordance with the contract,” Coates said.
And while the administration cites budget shortfalls as the reason for the cuts, the Faculty Association’s analysis reveals the budget is “sound,” Coates said.
This conflict prompted the senate to call for further discussion between the faculty and the administration to come to a mutual understanding of the University’s financial situation.
The administrators declined to provide numbers on how many fewer faculty there will be next year, as there will still be adjustments, said Rodney Rogers, provost and senior vice president for Academic Affairs during his report.
“What we tried to do is to give individuals as much notice as possible,” Rogers said to the senate.
Senate members also expressed concern that the faculty members are often the ones who suffer when money needs to be saved at the University.
“If we want to talk about the morale issue, why people are upset, it’s the human factor,” said senate member Lori Ligget, lecturer in the Department of Telecommunications. “It always feels like it’s on the back of the faculty.”
Senate Chair Sheri Wells-Jensen said much the same thing when addressing the senate at the end of the meeting.
“We feel like we’re on the edge,” said Wells-Jensen, an associate professor in the English Department. “We’re hoping for boldness and innovation instead of benchmarking and fear.”
The senate also passed both the addition of a management minor for non-business majors and also revisions to the Arts and Sciences group requirements for the B.A. degree.
The revisions reduced and simplified group requirements and aligned them with the BG Perspective.
