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Message from Dean Kenneth Teitelbaum
Most of the time, I take this opportunity to highlight some of the impressive activities and accomplishments that are taking place in our College. But for this issue I have to talk about finances.
Headlines in the Daily Egyptian student newspaper during the last days of September have focused on “hiring freeze,” “budget falls $4.7 million short of projections,” and the like. I’m sure you all know that it’s not just SIUC that is facing major financial problems. When Harvard University is forced to lay off several hundred staff members, and the University of Georgia system institutes six work furlough days this year and the University of Wisconsin system eight furlough days for each of the next two years, and the Mississippi public university system is facing a budget cut of up to 20 percent and the laying off of tenured faculty members from under-enrolled programs, and Florida Atlantic University proposes to suspend its Women’s Studies Center and master’s degree program, and so many similar stories can be told about private Ivy League colleges to large public universities from coast to coast, it is clear that SIUC is not alone. Unfortunately, with Monetary Awards Program grants in serious trouble, a continuing (if smaller) decline in undergraduate student enrollment, a relatively low increase in tuition, the significant decrease in state funding support during the last two decades, etc., it’s not a pretty picture for us. As President Poshard points out, while it might not seem so dire this year, largely because of federal stimulus monies that account for about 7 percent of our budget, when those funds are no longer available next June, our situation could very well be much worse.
What’s interesting, I think, is that our College is probably one of the best “citizens” on this campus when it comes to the budget. Our NTT faculty are without doubt of incredible help to us in teaching our students and otherwise helping our academic and other programs. They bring understandings and experiences to our College that we very much need. But we rely on them too much, especially given the research that needs to be done, the grants that need to be applied for, the dissertation and other committees that need to be served on, and the like. It is striking to compare us with some of the other colleges. For example, with approximately the same number of students, we have less than half the number of TT faculty in the College of Liberal Arts. And with well more than twice as many students, we have fewer TT faculty than the College of Science. In other words, we are a very cost-effective academic unit, hiring many of our instructors at considerably less expense than is the case in other colleges on campus. And, as you no doubt know, faculty and staff salaries make up fully 92% of our overall state-funded budget, which is similar, I’m sure, to the other colleges on campus.
Last semester, at the request of Chancellor Goldman and with the assistance of the COEHS chairs/directors and Susan Wills in the Dean’s Office, I prepared a report of “efficiency measures” that our College is undertaking and planning to adopt in the next couple of years. Most of the measures dealt with travel, commodities, class scheduling (e.g., the 5-10-15 guidelines) and teaching loads. Quite honestly, we don’t really have a lot of “excess” state funds to cut. Thankfully, we have monies from external grants, alumni donations, and the like to help with the non-salary expenditures that are important to us. But if we are asked to cut (to give back) state monies, where will they come from? I guess we can eliminate all but essential travel and the purchase of new computers and office furniture, as well as the painting of offices; and reduce the number of sections for courses that have multiple ones, no matter how large each section gets (and what our accreditation standards say is the maximum size); and increase our teaching loads (thus eroding SIUC’s identity as a national research university); and, well, I’m not sure what else we could consider. What we definitely don’t want to do is lose any of the faculty and staff that we currently have and depend on so much to create the truly stellar College that I think we have, in its research, teaching and service.
Perhaps we need to talk about this together in a “town meeting,” though, to be honest, I’m not sure if I personally have additional information to share with you at this time. We’ll keep it as an option to pursue, however, if enough people think it would be helpful. In the meantime, to paraphrase the English cultural critic Raymond Williams, while we keep the “dangers” clearly in our sights, at the same time we must continue to speak and act with hope for better days, continuing to imagine and create appropriate policies and practices both on and off campus. Let’s continue to enjoy social events together; and to share our scholarly work with each other, in a variety of formats; and to offer outstanding academic programs; and to partner with schools and community agencies . . . that is, let’s continue our work as a Top 100 College of Education and Human Services in the country!
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