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University reduces faculty searches

Chau Nguyen

To tighten its budget, Miami University has decreased the amount of searches it is conducting to fill faculty positions.

According to Provost Jeffrey Herbst, the hiring freeze previously reported on is for staff. Searches to fill some faculty positions are being conducted.

"We're taking a hard look at the many things we do at the university to see if we can do them more efficiently and eliminate things that aren't needed," Herbst said. "(But we want) to preserve the most strategic priorities, which is student success and retention, and are working very hard to make sure the instructional program's high quality is preserved."

Because salaries account for 80 percent of Miami's budget, Herbst is working in conjunction with deans in all divisions to postpone or eliminate some previously approved searches.

"We are having fewer faculty searches than anticipated and are either postponing or eliminating searches for next year," he said. "But, we aren't eliminating current faculty positions."

According to Phyllis Callahan, senior associate dean in the College of Arts and Sciences (CAS), the CAS is moving forward with four of 24 job searches in areas of microbiology, zoology, English and Asian/Asian-American Studies.

Kerry Powell, English department chair, said canceling the job searches is a setback for all departments. With half of the faculty on pre-tenure track, Powell said the English department is very young and saw the job searches as an opportunity to recruit senior faculty members.

However, the department will only be able to fill a professor position in composition and rhetoric, which Powell said CAS Dean Karen Maitland Schilling felt was a high priority search.

"Whoever (is hired) will direct the First-year College Composition Program, so it's a very important position ... since virtually everyone has to take the course," Powell said.

Associate Dean Raymond Gorman said the Farmer School of Business (FSB) is going through with two of six searches, with one currently pending.

"Certainly we have some areas of need that we've established and faculty shortages in different areas that we aren't going to be able to fill," Gorman said.

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Gorman said the current searches are for an assistant professor position in accountancy and a department chair position in marketing.

"We looked at various measures such as student credit hours for faculty and which departments have the greatest need (to determine which searches to proceed with)," Gorman said. "In terms of the department chair, we felt it was also a strategic move to bring leadership into that department."

Marek Dollár, dean of the School of Engineering and Applied Sciences (SEAS), said the school is definitely proceeding with two of five searches. One search is for an endowed chair in chemical

engineering, while the other is for tenure-track faculty in computer engineering.

Because the salary for the endowed chair position comes from specific endowment funds and not regular university budget, Dollár said the new position is not impacted as strongly as others are by budgetary constraints.

SEAS will determine the status of remaining searches by Thanksgiving break, Dollár said.

"There is the possibility that we may decide to suspend the (other) searches until the financial picture is clearer because we don't know what the state's allocation for public institutions will be," he said. "These are crucial positions for us and if we don't search now, it's very unlikely that we'll be able to conduct these searches in the next two years." Although he doesn't anticipate terminating any programs or majors, Dollár said budgetary cuts could prevent SEAS from moving into new areas that would require more faculty.

According to Dean Carine Feyten, the School of Education, Health and Society didn't conduct any searches last year and lost several faculty members due to outside recruiting and relocation.

Because of this, Feyton said the school is proceeding with 13 job searches, with the understanding that it will possibly only fill half of them.

"We will be looking for 'stars' and will only fill the positions that generated a very strong pool with potential for grant writing and external funding," Feyten said.

Likewise, the School of Fine Arts is continuing with all 10 searches for positions in four departments deemed "core to the mission and strategic initiatives of the departments and divison," said Dean James Lentini via e-mail.

"We did zero tenure-track searches last year and ... we have not hired many tenure track faculty in over the past four years," he said.

Herbst said the university is working hard so that the hiring freeze does not affect students.

"We have a workload norms document which we believe will help use faculty time as efficiently as possible," he said.

Dollár said cuts could result in less electives and larger classes in SEAS. Likewise, Kerry said the English department is looking at combining classes, closing classes with low enrollment and increasing faculty teaching time.

Kerry said people are just now beginning to realize the severity of the situation.

"It's probably not short-term and is a problem that universities across the country are facing, not just Miami," he said. "Faculty and departments want to protect the core mission of their departments and teach at the highest level possible. That's going to be the touchstone through this, but there will be some effects."

In terms of income, Gorman said nationwide trends could slow down the recent increase in faculty salary.

"In a nationwide sense, when everyone is hiring less faculty and other universities also have freezes, the downturn of the economy means there's less pressure for faculty salaries to rise," he said.

Even so, Herbst said he does not foresee decreases in faculty salary.


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