Faculty salaries and benefits make up about 51 percent of USM’s budget. That’s upwards of $50 million that the university can’t really touch when it looks to cut nearly $7 million from next year’s budget to start moving USM back into the black.
Tenured faculty are almost guaranteed to keep their jobs, barring legal complaints, and both full and part-time faculty are protected by their respective unions.
Looking to the 2008-09 fiscal year, which begins July 1, USM’s administration is still unsure of — or has not yet announced — how many positions will be eliminated.
Those who will feel it the most are part-time faculty whose contracts are expiring and adjunct faculty who work part-time and are hired to fill the fluctuating needs of the university. Neither position is eligible for tenure, though contracted employees who are maintained for more than six years receive just-cause continuation, which is a sort of tenure, making it difficult to remove their positions. This permanence is not the same as tenure in that there is no possibility for salary increases or rising in position.
Two English faculty who found themselves not rehired at the expiration of their contracts following this semester are Margaret Reimer and Jura Avizienis. The pair began at the university with one-year contracts and then continued on with three-year contracts.
Their not being rehired has been the site of some controversy, and union officials have been involved.
Reimer says that she is fortunate, as she was hired as a part-time instructor on the Saco campus — though is somewhat upset that her benefits have been cut.
She is also thankful that Avizienis was also lucky — she was hired as full-time faculty at LAC.
Reimer is upset about the way in which her position was eliminated. “The department has stated publicly that the reason for the non-renewal of the two contracts is due to a change in focus – that they need teachers who can pick up creative writing courses.”
Beyond the strategic choices made by departments and administrators as to which positions will be eliminated, those who leave, retire, or pass away are not being replaced, under the current hiring freeze.
Departments affected by these kinds of cuts will have fewer people running programs, and some may be asked to teach extra courses.
Mark Lapping the interim provost, said that this is “a very opportunistic approach and is not a strategic one. That bothers me greatly. This means, in reality, that because of several retirements a thriving major like theater has lost several people to retirement or departures.” He adds that he feels it’s critical to restore and refill these positions as soon as possible, and to fill them with tenured or tenure-track faculty. “But the reality is that we will have fewer part-time and fixed length faculty (adjuncts) here at the university in the coming year.”
A recent ‘Moving Forward’ newsletter written by Joe Wood detailed the fact that USM is not yet sure about how many positions will be eliminated for the upcoming fiscal year.
“At this point,” said Thomas Power, a theater professor and head of grievances for Associated Faculties of the Universities of Maine, “the administration has told AFUM that they do not plan to let any full time faculty go other than by attrition or retirement.”
He says that any attempts to terminate full-time faculty will be taken “very seriously and demand accountability in the event that any such termination occurs.”
He also agrees with provost Lapping, in that he believes that the loss of faculty through attrition could have negative effects on departments if the wrong people leave.
In regards to budget cuts and staff eliminations, Wood hopes to have a final decision, final total dollar amounts and the impacts of the cuts announced internally in early May.