In an effort to reduce costs, Ohio University is considering combining or eliminating administrative and other non-academic jobs as well as combining colleges.
News of potential job cuts follows the announcement of a growing state budget shortfall and the suspension of dean searches in the Honors Tutorial College and the College of Health and Human Services. The university now is looking to remove inefficiencies by combining administrative positions or reassigning duties among positions, which would result in losing some
administrative jobs.
OU also could integrate colleges or break them up and distribute their programs among several different colleges to eliminate unnecessary administrative positions.
If you can cut down the number of colleges
you could probably cut down on some (jobs) said Gary Neiman, dean of the College of Health and Human Services who is retiring in June. We need to find ways to decrease the cost of what we are doing and (cutting the number of colleges is) one of them
he said.
Margaret Manoogian, a professor in the School of Human and Consumer Sciences, a part of the College of Health and Human Services, said she does not believe the college will be affected because it has one of the highest enrollments at OU.
The College of Health and Human Services ranked second highest in enrollment, with 2,716 undergraduate students, during Fall Quarter 2007.
Administrators in Cutler Hall said they are considering all options.
Everything needs to be on the table at this point in time
said Ann Fidler, interim associate provost for strategic initiatives.
Combining the HTC with another college would be detrimental to the university, said Betsy Partyka, director of tutorial studies for Spanish.
As for the suspension of the dean search, It came as a complete surprise to me
she said. We faculty haven't been told anything about how the college will proceed.
Harold Molineu has served as interim HTC dean for the past year, and it is unknown whether he will continue to serve as interim if a permanent dean is not named.
The HTC search committee met once to discuss the position's requirements, said Jan Hodson, assistant dean and chairwoman of the committee.
I don't really have a clear understanding of what's happening
Hodson said of the suspension.
Dean Neiman said he still plans to retire at the end of the year whether or not the university finds a permanent replacement. The search committee for the dean of Health and Human Services was also suspended after one meeting.
More information about the dean searches and possible job cuts will be known after the announcement of the governor's next two-year budget later this month, Fidler said. State funding accounts for about 25 percent of OU's $657.8 million operating budget.
Some faculty said they are cautiously optimistic.
It would be hard for me to believe (the university) would not do the right thing
said Raymond Frost, director of tutorial studies for Management Information Systems. I would just be shocked if this didn't have a good ending.
In December, Gov. Ted Strickland announced $640 million in state budget cuts for the fiscal year ending June 30. These reductions came after Strickland already slashed $1.27 billion from the state budget this year. All of the cuts to date have mostly spared higher education while allowing the state to maintain a tuition freeze through the year.
Gov. Strickland has obviously been a huge help to higher education
Fidler said. He may not be able to continue to protect us
she said. We need to protect ourselves.
