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PROFESSIONAL APPOINTMENTS
John O'Brien (JOBRIEN@UCS.INDIANA.EDU)
Sat, 7 May 1994 10:52:39 EST
answer to the problem of creating new teaching and research positions. I
would like to ask people to cross-post this information to whatever other
relevant list they feel should receive it.
I.U.'s board of Trustees has passed a resolution that will add 240
new faculty to the system over a five year period. This move was initiated
through a 1% raise in tuition - per year - over a five year period. The
initial move to implement such a program came from the President of the
Student Government of I.U., and gained the support of the student body,
departmental chairs, faculty and finally administration and the CEO of
the University.
What is key is twofold. First, the move was initiated by the student
body itself . . . in a time of downsizing on a national basis. Second, the
administration has decided to examine those departments whose growth and needs
have been hardest hit during the last two decades.
During the first year, recruitment will be on a visiting appointment
basis - to be converted to tenure track appointment commencing during the
second year.
This is international news on a grand scale . . . and an idea that
could well take hold in virtually every institution of higher learning. I
recommend that it be posted as broadly as possible, and that we pass the
concept on to appropriate student government.
What is dramatic is that initially the Trustees were against the
move . . . citing excessive costs and greater need for allocation of
funds to non-teaching needs. The turn around came because of massive
support from every segment of the University community's students, faculty
and administrative scholars.
A hope filled development in an otherwise bizarre academic world.
John O'Brien
Indiana University
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