On Wednesday, there was a faculty forum to discuss upcoming changes to the curriculum decisions made to address the budget deficit of 18.5 million, as well as a presentation to the faculty from Interim Provost Tom Sutton. 

Within the first five minutes of the meeting Senate President Kent Cleland addressed a suggestion of going into executive session. The governing faculty (full-time tenured and tenure-track faculty) then voted to go into an executive session, with Sutton as their guest. This means that any non-voting members were mandated to leave the room i.e. adjuncts, students and members of The Exponent staff present to report on the forum.  

Sources present at the meeting, who have chosen to stay anonymous due to fear of retaliation and the issue’s sensitivity, provided The Exponent with information regarding the meeting and what was discussed. Key takeaways include information regarding faculty who will be let go in person, in the near future, due to the University budget cuts and two faculty/staff members who resigned in the last few days. These terminations will include a conversation on severance packages, placement services and coaching for faculty until new jobs are found for faculty.  

“If we offer fewer sections due to the changed core, then that means likely fewer adjuncts will be teaching sections, but I don’t have any specifics at this point; they’re only just beginning to figure out course scheduling for the fall,” Sutton in a phone call with The Exponent after the forum. 

The forum also discussed using an overloaded course schedule for professors and an intention to rely less heavily on adjunct staff. Professors will be asked to teach extra classes (increasing from three classes in the spring semester to four).  

Additional changes include the eventual discontinuation of 15 unnamed majors and minors. 

According to the faculty handbook, “elimination of the faculty member’s discipline as a program of study at the University” is one of only three ways in which tenured faculty members lose their protections from termination without due process.  

Possible cuts could also depend on future enrollment classes, with projections being based on class sizes of 600, 650 and 700. The latter is the number needed to meet a balanced budget. The University expects to produce $17.1 million in savings as a result of these changes.

As far as informing the faculty, students and the community at large, the administration plans to draft an email with the help of an outside organization to faculty first as a formality and then to students regarding these changes. They also claim that in the future there will be a website that will become the designated place for such information.  

Much of the other information revealed in the meeting was budget trimming procedures to ensure the deficit is decreased and maintained. Such procedures include increased scrutiny of department spending, data-driven program proposal scrutiny, no new faculty positions and other various changes to save money. 

Within the two proposals to the core curriculum, there will be no new courses for either model but instead the core will be decreased to include fewer class requirements, and the new core will only be implemented beginning in the fall 2024 semester for incoming first-year students. 

Sutton said that as a result of the news of the larger-than-expected deficit only recently surfacing, these changes may have been different. 

“We had a problem that was not discovered that grew larger and now we have to take what is definitely drastic action to fix it, but if we had started working on this or knew about it five years ago, some decisions would have been different which might have avoided some of what we’re talking about,” Sutton said. 

 Last Edited Feb. 1, 2024.