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Ellen Belcher is the Dayton Daily News opinion pages editor. She writes about state government, education, the environment, higher education and all things Dayton.
Martin Gottlieb is an editorial writer and columnist for the Dayton Daily News opinion pages. He focuses on the political process itself and does such national issues as war, the economy, taxes and Social Security, as well as a hodge-podge of local and state issues.Home > Blogs > A Matter of Opinion > Archives > 2011 > January > 26 > Entry
Guest column: University clearly on path to financial sustainability
This commentary was written by Anu Venkateswaran, an associate professor of marketing at Wilberforce. The column was also signed by Tjioe Kwan and Mohamed Abas, associate professors of mathematics; Savitha Krishna, assistant professor of biology; Deok Nam, associate professor of computer science; Maha Nagarajan, associate professor of biology; and Vicki Lockwood-Gorman, visiting professor of accounting.
Re “President, union clash over Wilberforce’s survival,” and “Faculty, president differ on views of Wilberforce’s future,” Jan. 15:
While improvements in enrollment and fundraising are indeed warranted and required, the leadership of the faculty union did not present an unbiased account, nor do they appear to have a realistic appreciation of how long or what it takes to turn the university around against the backdrop of the recent financial crisis.
Wilberforce President Patricia Hardaway inherited a $3.2 million deficit when she assumed leadership in 2008. Since then, she has significantly reduced this number.
Most business professionals would agree that, in the short run, it is a more viable strategy to cut costs than to grow revenues. That is precisely what the president and senior team have done.
Cost-cutting measures have included reducing the non-personnel operations budget, mandating non-essential personnel furloughs during holidays and breaks, and implementing salary reductions across administrative and staff positions.
Matching contributions to 401(k) plans have also been suspended.
As mentioned in the DDN article, the faculty union refused to make salary concessions. However, several full-time faculty members have voluntarily taught overloads from 2008-09 onward, to save on the adjunct budget.
What is truly disturbing is that the union executive leadership chose to air their differences of opinion in public, via the Dayton Daily News.
This decision was not even voted on by the general membership of the union. Some of the issues cited can be tackled by the faculty during faculty meetings or via joint faculty and administration special committees.
Negative publicity can do the institution and its students no good at a time when enrollment decline is of great concern.
The same union leadership chose to air its grievances at length to the visiting North Central Association accreditation team in the spring of 2010. Their actions could have jeopardized Wilberforce’s accreditation. One has to question whether the union leadership really has the greater good of the institution at heart.
Regarding the vote of no-confidence in Hardaway’s leadership: The union leaders neglected to mention that there were previous votes of no-confidence in President Floyd Flake and, before that, in President John Henderson.
Given that history, what are the odds that a “complete overhaul of the administration and board of trustees,” as the critics suggested in the DDN article, will yield anybody who can miraculously turn the institution around in short order?
The reality is that anyone new who comes on board will have a learning curve of a year or more.
Wilberforce’s financial crunch was built up over about a decade and will likely take a further period of a few years — not to mention dedicated team work and sacrifice from all employees — to effectively turn around the situation.
Notwithstanding the union leadership’s efforts, the university was recommended for continued accreditation — reflecting a measure of external confidence in the institution’s leadership.
Faculty can help by working with staff and the administration to try to grow revenues — by helping to grow enrollment and by writing grants to bring in funds. Many already help by taking on extra duties or overloads.
Furthermore, good relations, open communication and trust need to improve between the administration and the faculty union. A committee was created last semester to address that issue.
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