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Letter to Daily Hampshire Gazette

December 28, 2010

By Robert C. Holub
Chancellor, University of Massachusetts Amherst

I write to clarify three misconceptions about the University of Massachusetts that have been promulgated in the public sphere.

First, faculty numbers are not in decline. We have increased by 66 the tenure system faculty since the low point in 2002. Moreover, the number of instructional faculty last year was identical to the number in 1991. Considering the financial difficulties of the last decade, the campus has done remarkably well in maintaining its faculty numbers and, in recent years, of increasing those numbers. We have over 60 active searches this year, which should produce another modest increase in the tenure-system faculty.

In addition, we have more assistant professors now than at any time in the past 25 years, which means we have a solid basis for increases in faculty numbers in the future. Indeed, faculty in the tenure system are teaching, on average, fewer student credit hours now than they did a decade ago.

Second, it has been a campus priority that undergraduates get into the classes they need to make progress toward graduation. Not every student is able to get into every course at exactly the time they want it. But our focus on access to courses has been extremely successful.

Indeed, we had a record number of graduates last May, and the percentage graduating in six years has risen steadily over the past decade and a half. When measured against our peers and our aspirational peers we do well: Compared to the last eight public universities admitted into the prestigious Association of American Universities, our student-faculty ratio is at the mean, and UMass has the lowest percentage of classes enrolling 50 students or more.

Third, there is no mystery as to how we propose to grow our faculty numbers. We have a plan to increase to 1,200 tenure-system faculty by 2020, and this plan is included in our budgeting. Obviously there are several uncertainties with regard to our budget for the next decade, and much will depend on when the state recovers, and on our success in securing appropriate funding through student tuition and fees.

But our numbers are realistic, and all of our spreadsheets and planning have been shared with faculty since I became chancellor.

The campus has various sources of funding. The state appropriation is one important source; student fees are another. But we also receive revenues from continuing and professional education programs, which includes summer session; from fundraising, where we set a campus record last year; and from overhead returns to the campus on grants and contracts, where we also had a record year in 2009-10; and from other sources.

Indeed, over the past two years the campus has secured over $10 million in new revenue, which constitutes a source of funding for many necessary items, including new faculty lines.

We are concerned about the state's financial crisis. But we have not sat idly by and waited for reductions in allocations. We have taken our fate into our own hands, as much as it is possible. Ultimately our success will be the result of collaborative efforts between the administration and the remarkable faculty, staff, and students found at UMass.