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. 

1995 2008 Total number of Bargaining Unit Faculty * * Bargaining Unit as currently defined.  (In applying rules to the data from 1995 and 2008 to approximate the current definition of the Bargaining Unit, the data captures only about 93% of the actual size of the Bargaining Unit.)   1466   1693 Mean Age All Bargaining Unit Faculty Members 49.7 52.6             Tenured Faculty 1078 960 % Tenured 74% 57% Mean Age Tenured Faculty 52.2 56.9 % Tenured Faculty Age 60 and Over 18% 39%             Tenure Eligible Faculty 223 220 % Tenure Eligible 15% 13%              Non-Tenure Track Faculty 165 483 % Non-Tenure Track 11% 29%

Rebuilding the Faculty: The Path Ahead

UC must immediately re-center its planning for the future around the recruitment and retention of the best faculty, putting faculty excellence at the core, in order to achieve the goals enunciated in UC | 21.

More than 15 years and millions of dollars were invested in rebuilding the campus to prevent our physical facilities from becoming obsolete. Now UC and the State of Ohio must move to ensure that the University does not suffer from the impending loss of the wisdom, skills, and value of the 38% of the tenured faculty who are age 60 and over. Having an outstanding faculty, and being competitive in recruiting outstanding new faculty, is the only way

to ensure that UC continues to be an engine for regional economic growth and a national center of teaching and research excellence.

I believe in the goals set by UC|21. I believe we must reward excellence and uphold standards through meaningful reviews of all academic personnel, including faculty, unit heads, and deans. I believe these reviews are a pathway to a better work environment for everyone, if done properly, and thus the best possible learning environment for our students.

But faculty excellence does not exist in a vacuum. It comes about as part of a self-reinforcing “virtuous circle” encompassing faculty career satisfaction, faculty commitment to the institution, strong recruitment and retention practices, and a positive and supportive work environment. This model involves commitments from faculty as well as administrators at all levels of the institution.

In order to strengthen this virtuous circle, UC as an institution must be well positioned to hire the best and brightest faculty out in the marketplace. It must improve support for faculty research and professional development through travel funds and other mechanisms. It must look for ways to reduce our currently high levels of turnover. It must find ways to deal with salary compression issues, and compensation packages that have eroded dramatically over the past 10 years relative to our research university peers.

The success of the faculty is UC’s success. I am committed to working hard to find solutions to our problems with recruitment, retention, and compensation. I am confident that the Chapter membership as a whole believes in the search for these solutions, too, as a means toward building on UC’s excellence. We must find a way to move together into the 21st century and toward fulfillment of UC|21. To get there, an investment in UC’s faculty of the same sort that was made in our physical campus will be needed. Now’s the time to move … we have no time to waste.

       — Steve Howe, PhD, President, AAUP – UC Chapter