Ohio University will spend $1 million originally earmarked for faculty and staff raises to save 148 course sections from budget cuts, the provost announced yesterday.
The one-time money will allow 11 departments and schools to fund 17 faculty jobs but guarantees employment only through next year.
Mathematics and English will each pay for three instructors with the funding. Biological sciences and journalism will each get two. Philosophy, psychology, Spanish, music, dance, management information systems and management systems will each fund one position with their portions of the funding.
Only the history department applied for funding and did not receive it.
Executive Vice President and Provost Pam Benoit allocated the money to areas scheduled to offer fewer classes as part of OU's effort to trim $13.75 million from its budget. OU President Roderick McDavis set the money aside March 29 when he announced $13.75 million in budget reductions. The $1 million represents the money saved by providing for a 1 percent raise pool for faculty and staff instead of a 2 percent raise pool.
Many departments were not eligible for the money. Benoit restricted it to areas that would lose sections as a result of budget cuts. Deans were responsible for reviewing and approving applications before the provost made her decision.
Most of the money will be used to retain instructors currently teaching those sections. In some cases, though, those instructors are leaving OU or retiring, so the department will be able to hire a replacement, said Ann Fidler, interim associate provost for strategic initiatives.
Fidler said departments and the provost will have to carefully examine the consequences of budget cuts on course offerings during next year's budget process.
I think that as a result of our work on the budget reductions this year
we're going to have to go into the next stage of planning understanding that instructional capacity is something that we have to be very careful about she said. Because of the way the units are so decentralized ... it is difficult to see at what point in time resources that are directed to instructional capacity are in danger of being lost because of budget cuts.
Benoit has also distributed $400,000 to support General Education requirements in the College of Arts and Sciences. It is the second installment after about $380,000 spent on the initiative last year. The money allows the college to hire non-tenure track faculty for an entire year, rather than on a quarter-by-quarter basis.
English and Spanish will each get two instructors from that funding. Political science and sociology will each get one. The provost's office estimates that will save 48 sections.
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Emily Grannis
Money for staff raises goes toward protecting courses from budget cuts
