Identify Activity That Will Require
Augmentation in FY 2001-02
CSULB
faces an increasingly difficult challenge as it seeks to
hire the faculty needed both to offset a growing number
of retirements and to keep pace with the recent surge in
enrollment. At the same time that we are trying to hire
the largest number of new faculty in 30 years, so are many
other public and private universities across the country
that are benefiting from the booming economy. Just a few
years ago even the most outstanding applicants were often
relieved to have been offered a tenure-track position at
a large urban campus in one of the nation’s most exciting
places to live. Now they typically have several competing
offers to choose from. Our faculty salaries are reasonably
competitive, but the cost of housing in Southern California
and the extremely heavy CSU workload have become major obstacles
in getting the particular candidates we want to hire. We
can do little about the escalating prices of houses and
apartments, so we must address the workload issue. For at
least a decade Academic Affairs and the colleges have shared
the cost of providing a one-course reduction in their teaching
loads to all newly hired probationary faculty. Being able
to extend this assurance for a second year, specifically
for the purpose of supporting faculty scholarship, can by
itself be the difference between getting the type of energetic
assistant and associate professors we want and having to
repeat the entire search process over again the next year.
The
Division requests 600,000 for this initiative to provide
3 units of assigned time per semester to each of 68 tenure
track faculty hired in FY2000-01. The projected cost is
$611,184 (68 faculty X 6 units at $44,940). Because commitments
were made to faculty in their letters of appointment, this
mandatory cost must be paid. If only $300,000 is allocated,
the Division will reserve the additional $300,000 off the
top from funds recommended by RPP to meet the FY2001-02
enrollment target.
Continued
funding of this initiative will allow new faculty a second
year to prepare to compete for resources controlled by the
Scholarly and Creative Activities Committee. It will also
position them better to compete for external funds. And
it will thus contribute significantly to the process of
building a stronger faculty for the future of CSULB.
