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History department experiences cutbacks
The history department is once again embroiled in controversy, this time over the elimination of three positions.
The department's largest class, Democratic Citizenship (HIST 195) has been targeted for cuts by the dean of social sciences, Richard Lewis.
The dispute began back in January when the department made its regular staffing recommendations for the 2002-03 school year. They recommended a total of four fixed-term professors with a fifth optional, along with three adjunct (part-time) professors. They got 10 adjuncts.
William Turner is one of the fixed-term professors whose position will be eliminated under the dean's current plan. He says the quality of education is sure to suffer.
"I don't want to disparage the people taking these jobs," he says. "But what (you're going to) have is an instructor driving 60 miles, teaching one or two classes and driving back."
The nearest doctoral program in history is at the University of Minnesota, and many adjuncts will probably come from there. The rest will likely be area high school teachers with master's degrees. Adjuncts are always part time and often do not keep office hours. Few have a doctoral degree. Fixed-term professors work full time and must have the terminal degree in their field.
Essentially, Turner said, "They're charging you for a full-time education without paying for a full-time instructor."
Theresia Fisher, president of the SCSU Faculty Association (SCSU's faculty union) agrees. She said that completely replacing fixed-terms with adjuncts "just isn't consistent with the university objective (of offering the best quality education possible)."
Adjuncts are "kind of a haphazard thing," she said. The faculty contract calls for their use only in cases where a full-time faculty member goes on sabbatical or "to meet temporary staffing needs due to enrollment increases for which normal funding is not provided."
Lewis says that budget problems are to blame for the reductions. He said he has had to cut $400,000, the equivalent of about nine fixed-term staff, from next year's social sciences budget (social sciences includes history and six other departments). He also said that social sciences is overstaffed by 800 seats in democratic citizenship, a claim the Faculty Association hotly disputes.
Fisher said there's "no basis" for the claims of excess capacity. She said quite the opposite � that history has been understaffed for years.
Lin Holder, associate vice president of academic affairs, said that between 1,500 and 1,800 seats have always been offered in democratic citizenship. Twelve hundred, she said, is the bare minimum for first-year students. Returning students, she said, generally require around 500 more.
"Students need 195 both as a general ed requirement and as an introduction to the major," she said. Significantly fewer seats than that, she said, could cause backlogs of students who need the class and can't get in.
Lewis doesn't buy it. He calculated the number of seats by his own formula.
"A lot of students were just taking (democratic citizenship) to take a class," he said. "I have a dire need for upper division classes (in all seven departments). I have to cut where I have excess capacity."
But the classes still exist, at least on paper. Just under 1,700 seats, about the same number as last semester, will be offered next semester according to the current schedule. Registration begins this week for some students.
Lewis said he expects to start eliminating sections soon. His inaction so far, however, has some faculty members believing that Lewis is playing a waiting game.
Come June, the faculty will disperse and the dean will have a great deal more to say in the selection of any new professors. Many members of the faculty have had a history of disagreement with Lewis, a disagreement which became especially heated last year over the administration's attempt to remove associate professor Laurinda Stryker. This year, conflict has flared again over allegations that assistant professor Chris Nagassam's due process rights were not followed when he was removed for academic fraud.
Turner thinks that the history of disagreement may be coming to a head now.
"(Lewis) is trying to get rid of people he doesn't like," he said. After the semester is over, he could conceivably select the new faculty largely on his own.
Lewis pointed out Turner's personal motivations.
"The contract (for fixed-term employment) clearly states that that there is no future expectation of employment. (Even so), I understand that these people want to keep their jobs," he said. But Lewis' first concern has to be the budget.
Meanwhile, mediation between the Faculty Association and the administration continues, but time is running short. Out of 1,415 available history seats for first-year students, only 165 are staffed, and many may have to be eliminated.
"I want to be hopeful," Fisher said. But as time goes on, hope for first-year students and fixed-term professors alike may soon be in short supply.
Mike Lauterbach can be reached at: [email protected]
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