Investing in Faculty Excellence:  The Next Crucial Step into the 21st Century

I’m often astounded by the changes I’ve observed in my 38 years as an undergraduate student, graduate student, researcher, and faculty member at UC.  Today, we are classified as a Carnegie Research University/Very High, and ranked as one of America’s top public research universities by the National Science Foundation. While the entire UC community can take pride in this university, there is no question that the excellence, hard work, and dedication of UC’s faculty has been key in the institution’s advancement.  Indeed, more so than any other element of our complex institution, the faculty is the university. We teach, guide, and mentor students. We write the grants that bring in outside funding (over $330 million last year alone). We perform the research and write the scholarly mono-graphs and articles that advance academic knowledge, provide the basis for entrepreneurial ventures, and bring prestige to the University. We play an important role in the governance of the institution. Twenty years ago, the previous administration and the State of Ohio felt that our physical plant was deteriorating and could not support our aspirations of greatness.  We now have a re-built and revitalized campus, which is a great asset.  

Now comes the next step. The University community is facing a second and equally serious challenge, as shown in the table below. While the faculty has grown over the past 14 years, there has been a decline in the number of tenured and tenure-eligible faculty members, both in absolute numbers and as a percentage of the total bargaining unit.¹ While the decline in the percentage of the faculty on the tenure track has long been understood to have negative consequences on many fronts, what this table makes crystal clear is the nearly five-year increase in the age of the average tenured faculty member. To me, that’s an equally scary number.   (click here for full story)

UC’s Budget Situation: What Does the Debt Burden Mean? Thinking for Today and Tomorrow

Over the past year, our office has received a large number of calls and emails from faculty asking us to help them in interpreting UC’s complicated, and worrisome, debt situation. For anyone without special training in higher education finance and management, it is indeed difficult to sort through the many pieces of information that come from multiple sources to answer the seemingly simple question: What does it all mean?  

Is UC financially stable? Can it be financially viable into the foreseeable future? What does the “billion dollar debt” really mean for UC’s students, faculty, staff, and its educational mission?

Given the recent presentation made by President Zimpher and Vice-President for Finance and Administration Monica Rimai to the Board of Trustees, the new state budget, and recent media coverage of UC’s financial state, we felt it important at this time to provide an overview of the situation for faculty.  (more)