Will Your College Go Out Of Business?

[MacGuy]

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/mark-cuba ... f=homepage

[Class of 61]

Interesting article....does that mean that BG should NOT have built 2 new dorms and dining halls, not to mention the Stroh Ctr. and the new Wolfe Ctr. for the Arts? Now they're talking about laying off 100 educators and saying it shouldn't hurt the kid's educations.
I went to a very small HS (graduated with 25) and I know that some of my freshman "intro." classes had 50/60 students which was stunning to me.... Honestly, took me till Soph. year to get it in gear, make all the adjustments to succeeding in the classroom etc.
Of course, Mark Cuban is a multi-billionaire...wonder about his education background.

[transfer2BGSU]

Now they're talking about laying off 100 educators and saying it shouldn't hurt the kid's educations.

If a tenured professor is teaching a 1-2 course load (1 class in the fall and 2 in the spring), and will be teaching a 3-3 course load beginning in the fall semester (after contract is negotiated), how does this negatively impact the quality of education for an undergraduate student? Should we have fewer Ph.D's in the classroom and more adjuncts? Aren't the students paying for the Ph.D's? Now a tenured professor is going to teach 6 classes instead of 3 and we say that it will hurt the kid's education? How?

[PGY Tiercel]

What, have one professor teach 6 classes?!
Actually that does raise a second point Transfer, How many of those 100, actually do have Ph.D's? Part of the problem seems to be that Uni's are pumping out too many, then hiring them for cheap adjuct positions.

[transfer2BGSU]

What, have one professor teach 6 classes?!
Actually that does raise a second point Transfer, How many of those 100, actually do have Ph.D's? Part of the problem seems to be that Uni's are pumping out too many, then hiring them for cheap adjuct positions.

I have no idea what we pay adjuncts, but the college I worked for in NC paid....wait for it....in the day program a whopping $1,100 per class. Evening adjuncts were paid up to $1,100 depending upon the class size (20 students or more brought in the full $1,100). I had a friend that taught three classes at our school, three more at the local CC, and would drive to Raleigh or Southern Pines to teach two or three more. That was each semester and she had no benefits other than the paycheck.

The faculty at that school taught a 4-4 load, unless they were dept. chairs and then they were only responsible for a 3-3 load.

For some reason, I am under the impression that our tenured faculty work under a 25% teaching/50% research/25% service or committee responsibilities. Dr. Jackson could tell you an accurate figure. Not sure where I heard those figures, but those were the figures I was told some time ago.

It will be very interesting to see what happens under the new contract.

My understanding is that we stand to lose close to 400 folks by July 1 due to the changes in STRS and OPERS. Evidently slightly over 100 of those are faculty. A few of those positions will be filled, but they might be reallocated to different depts. depending upon major enrollments. Many of the administrative and classified positions will also remain unfilled, but some could be filled. I think it was Dr. Ribeau that said we have to do more with less. We've been doing that for the last five years or so.

[PGY Tiercel]

Interesting information. I've got a slightly different perspective, growing up in research intensive institutions, where faculty are hired primarily to do research, then to teach.
But, with the way NIH budget has been, doing more with less is standard most places.