Conversations with the Colleges, October 19-20, 2009
October 22, 2009
On Monday and Tuesday I met with small groups of faculty from both the College of Engineering and the College of Fine Arts. We met over the lunch hour on Monday in the Civil Engineering Building and on Tuesday in the School of Music. As I did last week, I had asked the participants to submit topics or questions they would like to discuss during our time together. This week, among the many things we talked about were the totality of the university budget, concerns about student access if tuition and fees are increased and the role of faculty/departmental shared governance in determining faculty workload. Together we discussed what a shared vision for the future of the University of Arizona might look like.
As many of you have heard before, the University of Arizona's current general fund appropriation of $348 million from the State is nearly $100 million less than it was two years ago. This is a staggering loss of revenue for our University that has had terrible consequences for all of our faculty, our staff and our students. The questions we must face together as a university community - as a community of scholars and researchers, extraordinary students and dedicated staff - is how do we make the bold decisions that will advance the success and thriving growth of the University of Arizona? How do we ensure that the quality of this great institution and the quality of the UA degree is protected over the coming years?
We were fortunate to receive approximately $62 million in State Fiscal Stabilization Funds (SFSF) from Governor Brewer. Through the efforts of our Arizona Board of Regents, we were able to use these one-time federal stimulus funds to cover FY2009 expenditures in instruction, academic support, and student support, thus allowing the University to mitigate the increase in tuition and fill urgent campus needs resulting from the decline in general fund support. We anticipate a second infusion of SFSF support, of a comparable amount. But, by fiscal year 2012, these federal funds will be gone, as will the maintenance of effort provision that the federal government mandated, which prohibited the state from cutting the Arizona University System budget below the 2006 level. With economic forecasts predicting a significant deficit in the state budget for FY2012, substantial cuts to higher education appropriations are expected. We must find a way soon to replace the loss in state support. We must, as a university community, begin discussions today about how we will build a bridge over this anticipated funding cliff to ensure the survival of this great university. We must find a way that will take us on the path similar to many of our peers at other great flagship land-grant universities: a path that requires us to shift from being a predominantly state-supported institution to one that must rely more heavily on endowments, gifts and tuition revenue as well as state support.
We also talked about shared governance and how the faculty from the different departments and colleges must take the lead in determining what the appropriate workloads are - teaching loads and research/scholarly/creative activity workloads - for faculty. One faculty member commented: "Our college is putting together a 'work model' plan that lays out grants brought in + papers + number of courses taught that leads to some measure of productivity..If you have no funding you should be teaching 8 courses a year." "How many courses/credit hours does the average faculty in each college teach?" This led our group to begin discussions on the broader question: "For each college and or department - what are the expected teaching/research loads in the different colleges?" Perhaps defining workload is slightly easier in the science- or engineering-based colleges where scholarship is measured in grants and papers, but what about the creative and performing arts? What about the humanities and social sciences? What is the role and duty of the faculty in each of these disciplines to determine and self-govern the expectations for scholarly productivity and teaching in their own fields? It was a lively discussion with no clear answers, but there was a call from this group of faculty for continued discussion and dialog within each department on the issue of faculty governance and workload measures.
Towards the end of our session, I was asked by a professor to share with the group my vision of what the University of Arizona will be 10-20 years from now. While I don't have my own crystal ball (or magic 8-ball) and in spite of all of the economic turmoil, I am very enthusiastic and excited about the future of the University of Arizona. How could we not be? This year alone we have the largest, most diverse, best prepared, brightest minds ever in our incoming freshman class. We have a campus of nearly 40,000 students who are ready and willing to take on the world and make it a better place. We have faculty and staff who everyday work to create, discover and teach so that the next generation can have a better life - faculty and students whose musical scores and artistic creations remind us why we live, whose new medical discoveries and cures help us to live healthier and more productive lives, and whose books and poetry speak to our souls. The University of Arizona will continue to be one of the leading universities in the country. Only together can we, the current generation who are entrusted to her future, ensure that our path into the next decade is successful.