Faculty Fall Out

When the University of Maine System cut 157 faculty positions last year it made the 6 o’clock news. The elimination of programs and majors were headlines in the newspapers for weeks, as were the student and faculty protests against the cuts. While the reporters have moved on to other news, faculty say the pain from the cuts are in full effect at the UMaine System campuses across the state.

“We’re becoming a less attractive place to offer an education,” said Jim McClymer, Associate Professor of Physics and Graduate Coordinator at UMaine.

To date, the loss in full-time faculty is larger as a percentage of payroll than any other group including administration, and larger than student credit hours, according to MyClymer. (see chart below) The reduction in faculty at the UMaine System is on trend with what’s happening at colleges and universities across the country. According to a report from the Campaign for Future of Higher Education, faculty are consistently being replaced with parttime staff with less experience and knowledge in respective fields of study.

UMaine UMA UMF UMFK UMM UMPI USM Full-Time Faculty (tenured/tenure eligible)*

576 101 123 31 31 47 369

Part-time/ Adjunct Faculty** (not tenure eligible)

356 222 68 63 50 59 396

Part-time as % of Full-time Faculty

62% 219% 55% 203% 161% 125% 93%

* Source: 2014 data (pre-faculty cuts), http://www.maine.edu/wp-content/ uploads/2013/09/Tenure-Report-Maine-2014.pdf?6d3d12 ** Source: UMaine System Human Resources, October 2015

The decline of faculty at the UMaine System campuses also continues to reduce the number and variety of courses offered to current and prospective students. “We can’t really prepare students for the workplace because the reduction in courses doesn’t allow for students to reach their potential— they don’t have the options to see what they may excel at, right now we’re just pushing them through,” said McClymer. “This whole idea of life-long learning—it doesn’t exist now,” added Sabine Klein, Assistant Professor of English, UMaine in Farmington. “Students are just forced to take classes to graduate.”

Meeting graduation requirements are also more difficult now since the reduction in faculty, according to UMaine Professor George Markowsky. Many courses that are required for students to take in any given major are no longer offered each semester.

“We used to offer all the required courses to complete a major every semester. Now we only offer certain required courses once a year so students will have to wait until the next year if they miss a course or can’t take it because the schedule conflicts with another course they need to take—that puts their education behind, and it’s causing lots of problems all because we don’t have enough faculty to teach the courses,” said Markowsky, Professor and Chair of Computer Science and Cooperating Professor in the School of Policy and International Affairs at UMaine.

University of Southern Maine Economics Professor Susan Feiner just experienced this problem with a student looking for help, sending her the following email perplexed as to what to do. “I am trying to enroll in the ‘ABU 190’ class that I need as a prerequisite for future classes but I am not able to as it does not exist. I need certain classes to graduate, but they are not available. Is there something else I can do? I need 28 credits to fulfill my BS in Economics.”

While the Associated Faculties of the Universities of Maine (AFUM), MEA’s higher education unit, continues to fight the faculty cuts and how the UMaine System handled the elimination of programs, the continued concern is for the students and the impact the faculty reductions will have in years to come.

“There’s a big difference between a faculty member and a part-timer— we’re not all interchangeable and students are now feeling the pain the most. Oftentimes part-time staff have no university phone, no university support staff, no university email, and worse, no office in which to meet with students to offer help, advice and encouragement. After graduation there’s no way to stay in touch with the part-time instructors: who will write letters of recommendation for employment? For further study? The University System is in trouble, and it’s all because the Board of Trustees thought it could cut its way to success,” said Feiner, Professor of Economics and Women and Gender Studies at USM.

Instructional Faculty Nationwide 51% By Rank 2013

14% 14% 16%

Key

Graduate Teaching Assistant

Part-TIme Instructional Staff

Full-Time Non-Tenure Track

Full-Time Tenure Track

Full-Time Tenured

6%