Daily Egyptian OCTOBER 5, 2016
DAILYEGYPTIAN.COM
SINCE 1916
VOL. 100 ISSUE 100
SIU could see Layoffs, resignations millions cut from cause drop in faculty budget in future ANNA SPOERRE | @AnnaSpoerre
An email sent Wednesday to faculty members from the Faculty Association obtained by the Daily Egyptian referenced a plan to cut an additional $34 million from SIU’s budget, which would cause another 10 percent cut to academic affairs. University spokeswoman Rae Goldsmith said those numbers make up one of multiple scenarios being considered depending on when the university receives funding from the state and how much is allocated. Last fiscal year, the university received about 80 percent of the funding it was supposed to get from the state, thanks to a couple partial stop-gap budgets. At the Sept. 8 Board of Trustees meeting in Edwardsville, SIU President Randy Dunn said while the university system received $106 million for fiscal year 2017 through June’s stopgap budget, SIU will struggle to get through FY17 if it doesn’t see any more state appropriations. If a $34 million cut is implemented, there will likely be another round of job cuts, Johnson said. Dave Johnson, president of the Faculty Association, which represents tenured and tenure-track faculty, said part of the reason he thinks people have been hesitant to speak up is because every time there is a cut, everyone looks around and says, “I’m still here … so I’m just going to keep my head down and hope for the best.” From fall 2006 to fall 2015, the number of full- and part-time faculty decreased by 246 professors,
according to university data. The exact numbers of faculty for this semester will be released this month, said David DiLalla, associate provost for academic affairs, though he won’t have exact breakdowns of who left for what reasons because faculty aren’t required to release that information. SIU had 3,651 faculty and staff as of May 1. As of Aug. 18, the count was at 3,229, a decrease of 422 employees, according to information obtained from a Freedom of Information Act request. Johnson said if more NTT reductions are made, it is likely more tenured faculty will have to pick up heavier teaching loads and set aside less time for service work and research. “At some point if you ask them for too much more teaching then you change the nature of the university to a regional university rather than a national research university as SIU aspires to be,” he said. He said people need to start speaking up to state legislators and vote for those who support higher education. “What’s a state university if the state doesn’t fund it?” he said. Johnson said morale among faculty and staff at SIU, like that at many public universities, is low. “The administration needs to reassure faculty and students that they’re doing everything they can to protect the most important thing we do at this university, which is teaching,” he said. Campus editor Anna Spoerre can be reached at aspoerre@dailyegyptian.com.
Autumn Douglas | @autumn_douglas Associate Professor of Spanish Jennifer Smith, of Carbondale, watches a student presentation Tuesday during her Neoclassicism and Romanticism class in Faner Hall.
ANNA SPOERRE | @AnnaSpoerre
While on a July study-abroad trip with his wife and eight students in Spain, Jennifer Smith’s husband received an email most people hope they’ll never get. He had been laid off. Smith, who described their reaction as caught off-guard and isolated, said it took some time before she learned that her husband, who was approaching 10 years teaching alongside her as faculty in the Department of Languages, Cultures, and International Trade, was not the only one left jobless. In a July 5 message to faculty, interim
Chancellor Brad Colwell announced five continuing status non-tenure track (NTT) faculty were being laid off. Roughly 10 non-tenure track faculty did not have their term appointments renewed and about a dozen others received reduced contracts as the result of an almost 10 percent cut to the academic affairs funding. Administration officials said the cuts were made because of the state budget stalemate and other factors such as retirements, resignations and poor performance. More than 150 faculty and staff positions were also left vacant. But Shannon Lindsay, who
became president of the university’s non-tenure track faculty union in July, said more than a few dozen SIU faculty lost their jobs this summer. She said another 91 NTT faculty did not have their contracts renewed by the university. These job losses are not technically classified as layoffs because NTT contracts expire on a year-to-year or semester-to semester basis for all NTT faculty who have fewer than the 10 semesters necessary to earn continuing status. But, she said, a non-renewed contract is still a big deal, Lindsay said. Please see LAYOFFS | 3