Almost two years after Ohio University initiated a campus-wide hiring freeze, President Roderick McDavis announced that OU would continue the freeze during the 2010-11 academic year.
The decision comes partly as a response to an estimated drop in both public high school graduates and state and federal funding for the coming years, McDavis said during yesterday's Faculty and Staff Convocation speech. About 200 faculty, staff and students attended the speech.
During the 2012 fiscal year, OU could face a projected $15 million reduction in state and federal funding, McDavis said. In addition, the National Center for Education Statistics predicts that during the next three years, Ohio will see a drop in the number of public high school graduates, thereby increasing competition for students, McDavis said.
Our ability to offset these budgetary pressures is limited both by tuition caps and our need to be sensitive to the affordability of a college education for students and parents
McDavis said.
OU could, however, make some exceptions to the hiring freeze with McDavis' approval.
We need discipline at the planning level not to ask for exemptions that are not so necessary McDavis said. (But) we are going to be sensitive to the impact (the hiring freeze has) on the university.
Joe McLaughlin, chairman of both Faculty Senate and the English department, said he hopes any reasonable exceptions to the hiring freeze will be considered.
At a big university like this there are always faculty who are retiring; there are faculty who are leaving to take jobs elsewhere
and we really need to replace our intellectual capital
he said. We can't let that suffer.
In June, 56 vacant positions still included in the university budget were eliminated to save money and decrease layoffs.
Becky Watts, McDavis' chief of staff, said the freeze could prevent layoffs in the future that might have been a result of over-hiring.
If you just let hiring go unabated ... then you have just hired a whole bunch of people that you have to lay off
Watts said.
Although the union employees will not be affected by the hiring freeze, Dave Logan, president of the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees Local 1699, said he still hopes for better budget news from the state.
We are looking for the worst
but hoping for the best
Logan said.
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