Some of the University’s administration and faculty are showing signs of faculty flight because of the changing University environment.
Administrative offices are now functioning with fewer personnel as department heads try to stem the tides of the budget crisis.
With impending budget cuts and nearly 270 layoff notices given out — and more to come — faculty and staff are leaving the University rather than coming in.
Rick Moreland, English Department chair, said three young professors in English left in the spring and summer.
While he won’t say the departures stem entirely from budget cuts, Moreland said the professors might have stayed if the future looked more stable.
Moreland said many professors are considering other employment options, as well as other schools. Some are picking up part-time jobs, and faculty morale is low.
“The letters are discouraging, considering how much time some of these teachers have devoted to LSU, and it does suggest an unstable future,” Moreland said.
According to the University’s most recent budget cut exercise preparing for a $62 million cut, 350 faculty and 350 staff positions would have to be terminated.
Among last semester’s notices of non-renewal, 14 in the Department of Foreign Languages and Literatures are effective as of Jan. 21, 2010, and the extension offers do not apply.
Chancellor Michael Martin said there is angst among the faculty, and the University is likely to lose more than those who have already left.
The administrative staff is not immune to faculty flight either.
College of Arts and Sciences Dean Kevin Carman is on the short list for a provost position at Montana State University, but he was unavailable to comment on the matter.
Jeannine Kahn, former assistant vice chancellor in the Office of Academic Affairs, was hired Sept. 6 by the Board of Regents as the assistant commissioner for Academic Affairs.
As assistant commissioner, Kahn said she will maintain the courses among all state institutions, consider academic matters that require Board approval and address issues relevant to higher education.
From 2008 to 2009, the number of faculty has decreased from 1,560 to 1,502, according to the Office of Budget and Planning website. This decrease follows an increase from 1,517 to 1,560 from 2007 to 2008.
In a worst-case scenario, Martin said the University would have to declare financial exigency, the equivalent of bankruptcy. In this situation, the University would be able to terminate tenured faculty in addition to non-tenured faculty.
“Seventy-eight percent of our budget is people,” Martin said. “A big chunk of that is in people you can’t let go without financial exigency.”
While many faculty and administrators are leaving, remaining personnel are picking up extra responsibilities to cope with being understaffed.
Martin said the University has eliminated many administrator positions and current administrators are “going to have to work a little harder.”
Some administrators have had salary increases to accommodate the additional work load. Martin said he will do “everything within reason” to retain the University’s good faculty and staff, including pay raises accompanying more duties. These increases occurred while faculty have had no across-the-board pay increase in two years.
“We’ve increased some salaries modestly, but we can account for $880,000 of savings by doubling up jobs,” Martin said. “I think it’s reasonable to give some people a little bump if they take on another job or two.”
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Contact Catherine Threlkeld at [email protected]