Faculty concerns to get airing
by Sarah
R. Buchholz, Chronicle staff
ll
faculty and librarians are being invited by the Faculty Senate and
the Massachusetts Society of Professors to convene for a special
two-hour discussion of common concerns Thursday Feb. 21. The assembly
is scheduled for 3-5 p.m. in the Student Union Ballroom.
"This is
an informal meeting to have a general discussion about the virtually
emergency situation that is confronting everybody," said Ernest
May, secretary of the Faculty Senate.
Topics for discussion
include the decline in faculty numbers, the closing of campus services,
such as University Child Care and the Foreign Language Resource
Center, campus planning, the FY03 budget, lobbying efforts, and
the state of contract funding.
The size of the faculty is a particularly crucial issue, May said.
"The cumulative
effect of the 5 percent [budget] cut, cancellation of about 30 searches,
plus other cuts, plus the losses due to early retirement with only
a 20 percent refill rate, will likely make this year go down in
history as one of the biggest cuts to an American Research I institution
since WWII," said May.
With a broad estimate
of anywhere from 40 to 160 base (tenure and tenure-track) faculty
taking early retirement this year and with a number of searches
for faculty cancelled, base faculty numbers could drop lower than
930 by next fall from the current size of nearly 1,100, he said.
A dozen years ago, May added, the base faculty numbered nearly 1,400.
"We must
create an awareness of what is about to happen and how this catastrophe
might be forestalled," he said.
|