Part-time faculty losing jobs due to low enrollment

Part-time faculty positions are being cut across many disciplines, but some departments are facing greater challenges than others.

Provost Chuck Stinemetz said departments request part-time faculty each year, and 88 percent of requests for next year were granted. Reductions were made in 12 of the 26 programs and departments that applied for part-time staff.

Stinemetz said the decisions regarding what and how much to cut were based off enrollment in courses and overall institutional enrollments in different areas. Maintaining existing majors was a priority.

“There was no effort to try to make them (the cuts) equal between the divisions,” Stinemetz said.

He said the cuts will save about $200,000 next year, but there had not been a target amount of money to be saved.

In the past, classes have been cut because not enough students registered. To avoid this, Stinemetz said he and his colleagues tried to be “conservative” in deciding how much to cut.

He said if there is a large freshman class next year, sections of classes may be re-added.

Stinemetz said part-time positions are based on need and the professors in the positions being cut do not have to accept the reduced units they are being offered.

There are many parts of OWU’s budget that need to be considered when making cuts, he said.

“For instance, we could reduce financial aid, but then we got a different issue,” Stinemetz said. “…We’d all love to have more money and not have to go through this exercise, but that’s not the situation we’re in right now.”

Some of the departments losing the most in these cuts are the languages, classics, religion and black world studies departments.

Lee Fratantuono, director of classics and the only full-time classics professor, said the classics major is “okay for another year” because of Stinemetz.

Greek was almost reduced to being offered every other year, but that possibility was decided against.

“It was the first time in my ten years it was called into question,” Fratantuono said. “The price is that we will not be able to offer two electives that we would normally offer, unless there’s a larger incoming class.”

Fratantuono said enrollment in classics has gone up “appreciably” in the past ten years, and Greek and Latin are subjects of the oldest department at OWU.

He said one effect of the part-time faculty positions changing so much is a lack of continuity for students.

“We have students now who have literally had a different professor every year because we’ve had three people cycle through,” Fratantuono said.

David Eastman, assistant professor of religion, said the religion department requested three part-time teaching positions, but all were denied.

Because of the cuts, the department will no longer be able to offer courses in Judaism or the Hebrew bible, even though the latter is an introductory course OWU was founded on, said Eastman.

Fewer introductory courses hurts enrollment in upper division courses, he said.

“I’ve been told that one student would like to major in religion, but because of this person’s schedule, can’t get enough upper division classes,” Eastman said. “So that’s our loss.”

Randolph Quaye, the only full-time professor in the BWS department, said about 60 percent of the department’s courses are taught by part-time faculty.

“I think these cuts are a crisis that we have to deal with and I hope and I pray that whatever the final decision is, it will take into account the academic programs and the staffing positions,” Quaye said.

Recent Black World Studies cuts jeopardize department

Director of the Black World Studies program (BWS), Randolph Quaye was recently notified that his request for nine units of classes was denied.

For this coming 2015-2016 academic school year, the BWS department will only have three units of classes each semester.

According to Quaye, “these recent cuts are due to the financial difficulties the university is currently experiencing.”

Quaye is the currently the only full time professor in the BWS department.

Although the cuts have been announced, Quaye is currently negotiating with the university and attempting to raise the amount of credits granted to the department.

“I am having a series of meetings with the board to retain programs. I will also be asking, at the minimum to keep Ali Skandor [a part-time faculty member] as a faculty member for the black world studies program.”

“Because of these cuts, we can be sure that Swahili 225 will not be offered,” for the next academic year, said Quaye.

“As someone who is currently in Swahili, I am extremely upset that I will not be able to continue in my language of choice,” said sophomore Cece Albon. “Swahili should be valued with the same importance that other languages at this school are.”

As for the completion of the program for current majors and minors, “it is hard to know how exactly they will be affected because a final decision has not been made yet. However, some classes are contingent on the incoming freshman class,” said Quaye.

Every student at Ohio Wesleyan is required to take at least two semesters of a language. Swahili is able to be counted towards these mandatory credits.

“His Swahili classes taught me more than just the language. It made me immediately want to broaden my intellectual horizons as well as my experience here at OWU,” Albon said.

The cuts also call into question the OWU in Tanzania program.

“If the university makes the planned cuts, it will be hard to keep the program successful when many classes will not be offered. Although, as of right now, about 17 students have shown interest partaking in the program and traveling in Africa,” said Quaye.

Albon mentioned that she would love to go to the OWU in Tanzania Program but didn’t have room in her schedule.

“It’s an amazing opportunity to experience something that a lot of students don’t get the chance,” she said.

Junior Kelli Kiffer said, “I understand the university is having financial difficulty, although maybe they could cut from a department that is more established and not trying to gain grounding in their field of study.” Kiffer is a BWS major.

“One of the reasons the black world studies program exists is to study and protect the African American culture,” Kiffer said. “If this program gets cut, there is a good chance these ideas will be suppressed.”

Kiffer also explained how she believes the BWS department can at times be underappreciated. Kiffer accompanied Quaye on the semester abroad to Africa through the OWU in Tanzania program.