The grievances of about 60 Ohio University faculty members who met yesterday might show up in an open letter to the public outlining faculty's own vision for the university's future.
The OU branch of the American Association of University Professors facilitated the open forum in Baker University Center. OU President Roderick McDavis was not present.
Journalism professor Joseph Bernt passed out information about a possible petition for an annual vote of confidence in McDavis and Provost Kathy Krendl that would be administered by Faculty Senate.
An annual vote would give OU administrators an incentive to grant faculty more decision-making power, he said.
What we're dealing with here is an imbalance of power
Bernt said.
The pliable nature of the Vision Ohio document is too often used as an excuse to dispose of faculty complaints, said journalism professor Bernhard Debatin.
It seems when you say something it's 'Oh
we've never heard that before
but it's a working document
' Debatin said.
Faculty are part of implementation teams for Vision Ohio, which are to use the document to design initiatives in which to invest the budget realignment's resulting surplus, McDavis said.
The implementation teams that are in place are being led by faculty
McDavis said. We have not made decisions on what areas we are going to reinvest. We're still in the process of having conversations.
The budget realignment plan could result in the elimination of 93 OU staff members, and faculty at the gathering said that such a move is better suited for the corporate world.
The strategy of cutting more budget than you need to necessarily means that some people will be fired unnecessarily
said chemistry professor Ken Brown. It's a Fortune 500 tactic
not a university tactic.
It is important for the purposes of the strategic plan to make enough cuts to fund Vision Ohio programs, McDavis said.
On the one hand
we have a deficit problem that we had to respond to
he said. On the other hand
