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NEWS
| October 9, 2003
A
case study: Liberal Arts faculty hit hard
The college’s interim dean
fears the dropping numbers will hurt educational quality.
By Kate
Bolen
The Shorthorn staff
Beth Wright, the interim liberal arts dean, said she worries that
a lack of tenured faculty in the college will cause a slip in its
quality of education.
The college had 136 tenured and 48 tenure-track professors in 1996.
By 2002, the number of tenured professors dropped to 117 and tenure-track
to 38. Dr. Wright cites budget constraints for the falling numbers.
A tuition increase will generate enough funds to fill some vacant
positions so she can address the shortage, she said.
“We are not always able to hire our first and second choices
because we cannot give them the same salaries and accommodations
as other universities,” the dean said.
Wright said the college needs to hire 15 tenured or tenure-track
professors divided throughout the college. Though the college has
requested permission to hire faculty, requests are increasingly
denied because the university is under a flexible hiring freeze
to help balance the budget, Wright said.
“Only if there is a significant tuition increase can we fill
these positions,” she said.
The Tuition Review Committee, composed of a student majority and
charged with analyzing and recommending an increase proposal to
the interim president, will meet with constituents for feedback
next week. Interim President Charles Sorber will then recommend
a proposal to the UT System chancellor, who will present a plan
to the Board of Regents.
If the college’s request is denied, it would not be an optimal
situation, Wright said.
Ray Grasshoff, a Texas Higher Education Coordinating Board spokesman,
said there is no set tenured faculty-to-student ratio standard to
operate efficiently.
But Wright said some liberal arts departments have problems because
they are stretched thin. English, for example, has lost one-third
of its tenured faculty to retirement or reassignment. Those who
resigned were typically offered higher salaries elsewhere, such
as North Carolina State University and Texas A&M, she said.
Interim English Chair Wendy Faris said salaries in her department
tend to run between $45,000 and $65,000 per year.
“These figures are lower compared to other universities,”
Dr. Faris said.
She said she hopes vacant positions will be filled with specialists
to promote the English major and spark student interests.
“We want a more full-time faculty so those who are sophomores
can get a better understanding of what the upper-level courses will
be like,” Faris said. “We want them to think about a
degree in English.”
The Criminology and Criminal Justice Department has 480 undergraduate
and 40 graduate students. There are only four tenured and tenure-track
professors for those students, Wright said.
Enrollment has increased more quickly than that of the faculty,
she said. Some colleges and schools at the university have seen
significant growth this year, she said. The college has seen a 12.5
percent increase in enrollment in the last year.
Wright said that not filling permanent positions cheats students.
She said, for example, students seeking letters of recommendation
from adjunct professors who no longer work here have no one who
knows their work.
Wright said she respects the adjunct professors in the college but
said they are hired for classroom instruction. Tenured and tenure-track
faculty go into the community to develop internships, obtain external
funding and collaborate with other institutions, she explained.
“What is the final education if you are dependent on courses
being taught by adjunct professors and not permanent? That is what
is harmful,” she said. “They don’t have a balanced
education.”
But English freshman Julia Endicott doesn’t agree. She began
the semester as a biology student but, after five weeks of class,
decided to switch.
She said her tenured biology professor caused her to change her
mind.
“I don’t believe that experience makes one a better
teacher. Sometimes it can bring more to the table, but that isn’t
always the case,” she said. “My biology professor is
knowledgeable, but I just wasn’t learning anything. My math
teacher was a teaching assistant last year, and I have had an easier
time learning in her class.”
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| Beth
Wright, interim liberal arts dean, says only
a significant tuition increase will aid the college
in hiring.
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