Identify Activity That Will Require
Augmentation in FY 2001-02
During the academic
year 2000-01, Academic Affairs authorized the colleges to
recruit for 98 tenure-track positions. The colleges are
finding that the competition for faculty of high quality
has become quite fierce. One major factor for faculty in
deciding whether or not to accept an offer of employment
is the availability of research/teaching equipment, travel
support, and computing hardware/software that are necessary
for faculty to do the work they are hired to do. Although
equipment needs were at one time more confined to technical
areas such as science and engineering, several colleges
are finding that many new faculty candidates have urgent
and justifiable needs for equipment. Obviously, these needs
must be met if new faculty members are to meet stringent
RTP requirements and if CSULB is to meet its goal of attracting
the best and most appropriate faculty for our campus and
its students. The campus has made it a high priority to
support faculty scholarship. It becomes imperative, therefore,
that we help new faculty to get a strong start on their
scholarship and not get bogged down waiting for scarce funds
in department budgets or campus grants. Faculty start-up
needs are an integral component of the multi-year plan and
vital to our ability to build the Faculty of The Future.
In order to realize the benefits the campus will gain from
new hires, we must be willing to invest in new faculty.
The estimated costs
for new faculty start-up range from $3,000 to $70,000 per
new tenure-track hire. Based on historical hiring patterns,
we expect to hire faculty in 75 of the 98 authorized searches
with start-up costs averaging $10,000 per hire. This translates
to a conservative estimate of $750,000 needed to meet these
obligations.
Last year RPP allocated
$300,000 in non-base funds for faculty start-up. The actual
cost for the colleges was $863,400. This year, Academic
Affairs requests $400,000 in non-base funds. Additional
costs, estimated at $350,000, will be supported from the
instructional equipment allocation.
