The budget crisis has forced Miami University officials to make tough decisions not only in the retention of staff but also in faculty hires for the 2010-11 academic year.
According to a university document combining questions from forums held in August by the Unclassified Personnel Advisory Committee (UPAC) and budget forums held in September, fall 2009 saw the elimination of 32 full-time, two part-time and 13intermittent filled staff positions.
Although the university has not yet had to take similar steps in the elimination of professors, it has put 40 job searches on hold, according to the same university document.
Faculty positions at Miami range from temporary academic-year terms such as visiting professors, clinical faculty and lecturers to tenure and tenure-track faculty such as assistant, associate and full professors.
Jeffrey Herbst, provost and executive vice president for academic affairs, said the number of faculty hires each year can vary. Herbst said because of the university's budgetary concerns there are significantly fewer faculty searches this year than would normally be conducted.
"There's going to be no growth in the faculty so there are no net new positions," Herbst said. "And simply because one person retires in one department does not mean they're going to be replaced in that department. It's the net across the university that will be maintained."
Herbst said the university is hiring about 24 faculty positions across 14 different departments for next year.
Herbst said the number is subject to change as the budget situation becomes clearer.
David Creamer, vice president of finance and business services and treasurer, said departments across the university have had to make sacrifices in faculty hires.
"I know the deans have found it necessary to keep some positions vacant to provide them with the flexibility to meet the budget reductions they've faced," Creamer said. "So, I think the concern now is not so much about what's happened but about how to mange further cuts that we may incur."
Kerry Powell, dean of the English department, said three faculty searches were eliminated last year in his department alone. Two of those positions have been re-activated this year due to the department's urgent faculty needs.
Enjoy what you're reading?
Signup for our newsletter
"What the budget crisis is causing is a lot of retrenchment in faculty hiring," Powell said, "but that's not just permanent faculty, we also hire a number of visiting and part-time faculty. We're not able to do as much of that as we have in the past."
Powell said the university has been taking the appropriate steps needed to maintain the educational environment of students.
"Nobody knows for sure what going to happen three months or six months down the road, but these responses make sense for the moment," Powell said. "I hope we don't have to resort to things like faculty furloughs other institutions have come up against or the closing down of entire departments. We must remember that we have lost some staff members because of this crisis and that's very regrettable."
Janelle Sikorski, former visiting professor in geology who has since risen to the position of lecturer, said as a non-tenure track professor her job is susceptible to elimination.
"So long as the need and the budget are there, lecturers can go year to year just like all the other faculty," Sikorski said. "As a visiting professor, you tend to be isolated from the university community because you might be gone in a year, and I was terrified something was going to happen should the university start cutting into the already established faculty lines."
Creamer said the utmost concern of the university is maintaining Miami's most important goal of a high quality education.
"We've stressed to maintain things most important to students as we've eliminated staff areas farther removed from the student experience," Creamer said. "But the concern continues to be what happens if further cuts are necessary, how might that have an impact, and that's harder to anticipate."
Read More
How one professor and her classes are preserving Oxford’s Black history
By Sean Scott | March 20, 2024Jazma Sutton, an assistant professor of history, teaches The Black Midwest (HST 350Q) and Black Women in America (HST 450D) classes. In both courses, she has students working with the Smith Library of Regional History and Miami’s archives to document and preserve Black history in Oxford.
Miami faculty members recount Freedom Summer in new documentary
By Luke Macy | February 25, 2022After seven years of work, “Training for Freedom,” a documentary highlighting Oxford’s involvement in the Freedom Summer of 1964, premiered on PBS Western Reserve on Valentine’s Day.
“Documenting the COVID-19 Pandemic”: History in the making
By Alice Momany | August 29, 2021In March 2020, Miami University’s archives launched “Documenting the COVID-19 Pandemic,” a collection focused on life during the COVID-19 pandemic.