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Faculty respond to Miami budget recommendations

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By Meagan Engle, Staff Writer 1:57 PM Friday, September 24, 2010

OXFORD — More than 60 Miami University faculty signed a letter presented to the Board of Trustees Sept. 24 expressing concerns that recommendations to save money and cut costs “will radically alter the character of the institution.”

Faculty from 27 departments and five schools signed the letter expressing “deep concern that our university is in grave danger of losing sight of its central academic mission as a liberal arts institution.”

The letter comes in response to draft recommendations from the Strategic Priorities Task Force, a group which met this summer to make long-term plans for Miami’s budget.

Among the recommendations are increasing the number of lecturers, decreasing the number of tenure faculty, reducing the number of majors offered and fewer classes with less than 20 students.

In the letter, the faculty took aim at plans for a new student center, requesting that “in a time of financial exigency, the university under no circumstance take on debt for any purpose that does not directly serve its educational mission,”

They ask that recommendations from the task force be “thoroughly reconsidered” with representation of faculty from all liberal arts and small programs. They are also requesting full public disclosure of the process if Miami selects an outside consulting firm to research and implement cost-saving measures.

Contact this reporter at (513) 523-4139 or mengle@coxohio.com.

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