Faculty discusses upcoming cuts

Ohio University faculty members on Tuesday discussed strategies for maintaining the academic mission of the university in the face of proposed 10 percent cuts to academic units and cuts of entire academic programs.

The discussion occurred during a brown-bag luncheon sponsored by the American Association for University Professors (AAUP).

While the university's administration is unofficially asking academic units to cut their budgets by 10 percent for the upcoming fiscal year, many professors suggested that this is akin to putting their own heads on a chopping block. Four panelists - John Day, associate dean of academic affairs and associate provost for academic budget and planning, Steve Hays, associate professor of classics and world religions, Kevin Mattson, professor of history, and Allyn Reilly, professor of music - spoke at length about the upcoming cuts.

"I'm going to be very much trying to raise a flag of caution when it comes to program cuts," Day said. "Cutting any program with higher enrollment is eventually cutting off your source of funding."

Day said the university must be careful about how it looks at whether or not programs are generating revenue, and that all economic factors must be taken into account. Even small graduate programs can help generate revenue because those graduate students may teach classes that would cost the university money to pay a Group II faculty member to teach, Day said.

Executive Vice President and Provost Pam Benoit formed an ad hoc committee, of which Reilly is a member, in order to clarify language in the Faculty Handbook. The idea is to help set forth a process for trimming programs to recommend to the University Curriculum Council.

The Faculty Handbook states that a program can be cut for educational reasons if there is a lack of continuing need for the program or a lack of educational quality or for reasons of financial exigency. The Handbook also mandates that the discussions about what programs to eliminate begin at the individual college level, then move to the University Curriculum Council for elimination.

"When we talk about educational value, we can't just look at numbers," Reilly said. "We have to look at how it fits into the larger picture."

In the School of Music, for example, the department cannot just cut out the teaching of one instrument, because the orchestra would be incomplete, Reilly said.

"You can't have just violins," Reilly said. "We offer these various majors to be as attractive to as many students as possible."

While the administration has asked every department to propose 10 percent cuts, Day told faculty that ultimately every department will see different levels of cuts. The administration will review the cuts to see what areas need more or less funding, Day said.

Mattson suggested that the university's asking departments to make these cuts is simply "pseudo-self-governance," and that it is unlikely that the administration will follow the recommendations.

"It's a waste of time developing scenarios for people who do not have our best interests in mind," said Mattson, a former AAUP president at OU. "We need to now stick up for professional standards as faculty members."

Some faculty also suggested that, in light of recent university expenditures on Intercollegiate Athletics, faculty need to define their priorities at the university and stand up for those priorities.

"I think we're here to educate the upcoming generation of democratic citizens to solve the problems that are emerging for themselves and the rest of the world," Hays said. The university must determine what functions are "organic" versus "inorganic" to that mission, he explained, and then cut out the inorganic functions.