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Editorial: Staff cuts could be problematic for university
Editorial Board
Issue date: 3/31/09 Section: Opinions
It was bound to happen, and it's happening sooner rather than later.
The economy has impacted the university enough for the Office of Academic Affairs to call for department heads to consider a 2 percent staffing cut for the 2010 budget.
Blair Lord, provost and vice president for academic affairs, said one way to not spend 2.5 percent of the state appropriation over a year is to slow down the hiring process.
Waiting to fill positions that are open because of natural turnover, not renewing contracts or simply not filling positions that are not needed as much as others is not a bad idea, but evaluating what is or isn't needed should be handled with care.
Unfortunately, the university is already spending more money by opening up the search for a dean for the College of Arts and Humanities — a position that is important and should be filled as soon as possible.
Lord said the 2 percent cut would "result in a slightly smaller compliment of instructors next year across each division."
However, is cutting instructors really necessary?
Let's take the College of Arts and Humanities for example. Currently, there is a dean, an associate dean, an assistant dean and an assistant to the dean.
Now, let's look at the College of Business and Applied Sciences. It has a dean, an associate dean, two assistants to the deans and an assistant to the dean for academic computing.
These are just two examples, but it seems like rather than cutting the university's educators, cuts could be made to these assistant positions and other desk jobs.
Students come to universities to learn, and Eastern prides itself on small classrooms.
With fewer professors, one of two things would happen: larger classrooms or fewer sections would be available.
But if a department has more than enough sections, by all means make a cut.
Lord said crafts positions, maintenance positions and groundskeeper positions are being postponed as well.
We just hope the university stays smart about these cuts and that it keeps enough people around so everything that needs to be done gets done.
We wouldn't want a burst pipe in the Doudna Fine Arts Center and not enough maintenance personnel available to fix it.
The editorial is the majority opinion of The DEN editorial board. Reach the opinions editor at DENopinions@gmail.com.
The economy has impacted the university enough for the Office of Academic Affairs to call for department heads to consider a 2 percent staffing cut for the 2010 budget.
Blair Lord, provost and vice president for academic affairs, said one way to not spend 2.5 percent of the state appropriation over a year is to slow down the hiring process.
Waiting to fill positions that are open because of natural turnover, not renewing contracts or simply not filling positions that are not needed as much as others is not a bad idea, but evaluating what is or isn't needed should be handled with care.
Unfortunately, the university is already spending more money by opening up the search for a dean for the College of Arts and Humanities — a position that is important and should be filled as soon as possible.
Lord said the 2 percent cut would "result in a slightly smaller compliment of instructors next year across each division."
However, is cutting instructors really necessary?
Let's take the College of Arts and Humanities for example. Currently, there is a dean, an associate dean, an assistant dean and an assistant to the dean.
Now, let's look at the College of Business and Applied Sciences. It has a dean, an associate dean, two assistants to the deans and an assistant to the dean for academic computing.
These are just two examples, but it seems like rather than cutting the university's educators, cuts could be made to these assistant positions and other desk jobs.
Students come to universities to learn, and Eastern prides itself on small classrooms.
With fewer professors, one of two things would happen: larger classrooms or fewer sections would be available.
But if a department has more than enough sections, by all means make a cut.
Lord said crafts positions, maintenance positions and groundskeeper positions are being postponed as well.
We just hope the university stays smart about these cuts and that it keeps enough people around so everything that needs to be done gets done.
We wouldn't want a burst pipe in the Doudna Fine Arts Center and not enough maintenance personnel available to fix it.
The editorial is the majority opinion of The DEN editorial board. Reach the opinions editor at DENopinions@gmail.com.
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Viewing Comments 1 - 6 of 6
Continuing Administrative Bloat
posted 3/31/09 @ 7:24 AM CST
Don't forget the College of Sciences. The Dean has recently added to her staff such that she now has an Associate Dean, THREE Assistants to the Dean, a Technician, an Advisor, a personal Secretary, and a permanent Student Gopher (uh, Worker). (Continued…)
Dev
posted 3/31/09 @ 1:26 PM CST
I agree with the editorial and also the first poster.
Big Brother
Big Brother
posted 3/31/09 @ 1:45 PM CST
All this editorial does is speculate. How about comparing costs of staff positions to administrative positions? Figure out which one costs more. How about figuring out the duties of staff positions that could be cut, so you will know if they serve a real purpose to the university? How about getting the administration side of the story and explaining to readers why it is flawed? Or how about telling us the total of amount of useless administrative positions to see if really consumes a large portion of EIU's budget?
If you are going to persuade readers, actually conduct some analysis - not half-hearted research that falls short of answers. (Continued…)
Bloat
posted 3/31/09 @ 7:31 PM CST
The editorial and first comment are on the money. Administrative positions take up larger and larger parts of college budgets. True not only at Eastern but generally. (Continued…)
Dev
posted 3/31/09 @ 9:46 PM CST
I commend DEN for publishing this editorial and disagree with the comment by 'Big Brother'. First step is to highlight the problem and then figure out how to tackle the problem. (Continued…)
Miley
posted 4/01/09 @ 12:57 PM CST
I don't think the editorial board is taking into consideration what running a college actually entails. What do all those people in Arts and Humanities do? What is their pay? It's like the edit board is teetering on the edge of greatness then hops back before offending anyone. (Continued…)
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