It's not just the students at UB who feel disenfranchised. Many of the faculty members do, too.
Students have been up in arms since the beginning of the semester, concerned about tuition hikes, canceled classes, and a general feeling that the administration isn't listening to them. On Wednesday, university students participated in a SUNY- and CUNY-wide walk-out/teach-in to protest what they see as a lack of a democratic process on campus.
Hard times have also fallen on the faculty, though.
"[In the nursing school] there's no new faculty; we're all at teaching capacity. We've got lousy schedules – I feel like a student again. I thought I'd stay here for 30 years, but what has this job become?" said Mary Adams Carey, associate professor at the School of Nursing.
Both University President Satish K. Tripathi and Interim Provost Harvey G. Stenger Jr. spoke to members of the Faculty Senate at their first meeting of the school year on Tuesday, Oct. 4 at the Center for Tomorrow. They tried to explain the university's vision and allay fears about the school's financial situation.
Tripathi spoke at length about the passage of NYSUNY 2020 being an integral part of the school's financial stability. The legislation allows the university to raise tuition rates 5 to 10 percent per year.
Stenger estimated that starting in the 2012 academic year, changes wrought by the legislation will bring in an additional $19 million each year, at least: $19 million in 2012-13, $38 million in 2013-14, and $57 million in 2014-15. However, for this current year, the university is still operating with a deficit, and it had to make approximately a 2 percent cut across the board.
In a speech on Sept. 23, Tripathi outlined his two priorities for the university: to get the best students (and give them the best education) and to get the best faculty (and retain them). Extra money would make those goals easier for UB to accomplish.
Some of it will come from the increase in tuition. But Tripathi is working diligently to secure funding from outside sources as well. He has embarked on his "20 cities in 20 months" agenda, stopping at cities like Atlanta, Ga. to meet with UB alumni and raise funds.
He is also seeking monies for 100 endowed chairs at the university (UB currently has 57). These chairs will provide resources to complete research and projects that salaries and grants wouldn't cover. Tripathi referenced a recent faculty acquisition from Maryland that he believes the university only secured because of the presence of one such endowed chair.
Additionally, Stenger discussed the university's shortcomings when compared to the 32 public research institutions that are members of the Association of American Universities. UB is near the bottom, and it is a major goal of the university to bring itself to the middle within the next five years.
What the university does in the next two years could be extremely important, said Michael Ryan, director of university accreditation and assessment.
UB will soon be up for its decicentennial review with the Middle States Association of Colleges and Schools. There have been significant changes made by the accrediting association since the last time UB underwent review, and recently, the university had to submit a progress report regarding its ability to address "institutional effectiveness" and "student learning outcomes." The association's comments on that report are not yet available.
Ryan is looking forward to involving students, as well as faculty and administration, in the process that occurs before the review. He wants to form working groups that engage students so that they have a voice in letting the administration know what works and what doesn't work on campus.
To that end, he has already approached the presidents of the undergraduate and graduate student associations for input, and he has promised to contact The Spectrum when he is ready to hold open student meetings to make sure there is a maximum amount of student participation.
There has certainly been a rise in costs, both for students and for much of the faculty. While it is easy to make a $303,000 salary (that of Arjang Assad, dean of the School of Management), a talking point for a protest, most faculty members make much less; many of them are working overtime and are not getting paid for all the work that they are putting into making sure students at UB receive a quality education, according to Patricia Nisbet, clinical assistant professor at the School of Nursing.
The increased tuition rates will allow for the hiring of 300 new faculty positions within the next five years, as well as the hiring of 1.2 staff members for every faculty position, according to Stanger. With the anticipated retirement of 300 other faculty members during those same years, students can expect that there will be 600 new faculty members joining the UB ranks.
"Faculty hiring is never easy," Tripathi said. "It's not the numbers; it's the quality."
Email: news@ubspectrum.com
Photo: Courtesy of Laron Fomby
