With budget cuts taking its toll on Radford University, one major question on the minds of faculty and staff is just who will be teaching classes next fall? Many had hoped to ask that question at an open forum scheduled for March 5 that was designed to, according to an official e-mail notice from RU, “discuss legislation passed by this year’s session of the General Assembly that will affect Radford University and the impact of the state-mandated budget reductions on RU.”

That event was moved to March 19 because, according to another RU e-mail, the General Assembly had not announced the extent of any budget reductions that might have to be imposed on RU for the next fiscal year, which begins in July. But the March 19 meeting has been rescheduled for March 26 due to Radford’s NCAA basketball game at 2:50 p.m. on March 19.

The new forum is set for March 26 at 3:30 p.m. in the Bondurant Auditorium in Preston Hall. According to an RU e-mail, President Penelope Kyle and other members of the university administration, including Provost Wil Stanton and Associate Vice President for Finance and Administration Evelyn Wilson, will discuss legislation and the budget. The e-mail says, “Open discussion is encouraged and a question-and-answer period will be provided. All members of the Radford University community—faculty, staff and students—are invited.”

But as Tim Thornton said in his Roanoke Times blog this week, “What folks will talk about at the budget forum is an open question. It was originally meant to talk about cuts in state funding , but those cuts that didn’t happen. Federal stimulus money is plugging the gap.” So it seems that some of these cuts may be unnecessary.

But with little official response from the RU administration about the budget thus far, faculty and staff have been left to wonder about the future, which often churns up a hotbed of rumor on the old gossip mill. Sometimes the fears are greater than the reality. Sometimes the reality simply isn’t known. And sometimes worst fears are indeed realized.

Status of Administrative/Professional Faculty

Provost Wil Stanton addressed concerns being expressed by some faculty and staff members that Administrative/Professional (AP) faculty would not be allowed to teach in the fall. A few AP faculty members have long been used essentially as adjunct instructors to teach a few classes each semester.

“AP faculty are permitted to teach classes, but only to the extent in their position description as developed by their supervisor,” Stanton said. “Within Academic Affairs, some teaching is expected of AP faculty, e.g., Associate Deans, but in other cases AP faculty may teach only during the evening, e.g., a systems administrator who needs to be available during normal operating hours of a college. In all cases within Academic Affairs, any AP faculty desiring to teach must have the request approved by his/her immediate supervisor.”

Both Danny Kemp, Vice President for Information Technology, and Catherine Greenberg, Vice President for University Advancement, reported that no AP faculty have been teaching in their divisions but said that if the situation arose, the AP faculty member must teach outside of his or her regular work hours.

Norleen Pomerantz, Vice President for Student Affairs, said that she usually has two or three staff that have the appropriate credentials to teach a content course and that have adjunct status. “They may or may not choose to teach a course in a given academic year,” she said. As for the fall 2009 semester, Pomerantz said, “No one has informed me that he or she will be teaching in the fall so at this time, so I don’t know [how many AP faculty may be teaching this fall].” Pomerantz added that the policy for AP faculty in her division is that they must teach outside of their regular work hours and no more than one course during an academic year.

Budgets for Adjunct Faculty Slashed

Reports have also been swirling about drastic cuts to adjunct budgets, which could in turn result in drastic cuts in classes. Stanton said that it is true that RU will hire fewer adjunct faculty for the fall semester. “This will not result in significant decreases in the availability of classes,” Stanton said. “Many full-time faculty who previously were reassigned to other duties will be returning to the classroom full-time to replace adjuncts that would have taught those classes. We have also conducted a review of under enrolled classes and may combine some sections or teach those classes less frequently, but none of these actions will result in a noticeable impact on the availability of classes or on students’ ability to graduate on time.”

Department chairs and deans all typically report cuts in the use of adjunct instructors.

“Last fall we had eight sections taught by adjuncts,” said Mary Atwell, Chair of the Department of Criminal Justice. “Next fall we will have three. It means we are offering fewer electives and teaching larger sections.” Atwell added that the situation in Criminal Justice is complicated because next fall the department will have two fewer full-time faculty than it did this year.

English is an area that has traditionally used large amounts of adjunct instructors. English Department Chair Rosemary Guruswamy said the adjunct budget in English has been cut from 64 sections last year to 46 for fall 2009.

“I tried to preserve our offerings to the Core Curriculum as much as possible,” Guruswamy said. She explained that most of the decrease affected multiple sections of major courses—most of which are elective or have alternatives in the schedule. She did not cut anything majors would need to advance in their program of studies. She also reduced offerings in the sophomore literature requirement.

Lennie Scott-Webber, Chair of the Department of Interior Design & Fashion, stated that her adjunct budget had been reduced by 50 percent. Scott-Webber said the loss of adjuncts is resulting in two courses being cut and a potential loss of accreditation. She also added that some courses are being collapsed, meaning more students per class. Reports of larger classes being planned for the fall are widespread.

William Kennan, Interim Associate Dean of the College of Humanities and Behavioral Sciences said his area’s adjunct budget had also been reduced by 50 percent. Kennan said that he thinks the instructor cuts will equate into some classes being cut but he said it depends on the size of the incoming freshman class.

“It’s a very difficult budget and difficult time for all,” Kennan said. “I know that all of this has been carefully considered, but it’s painful all the same.”

Patricia Shoemaker, Dean of the College of Education and Human Development, concurred that the college and university have been conscientious in identifying measures to reduce expenditures that will not interfere with being able to offer the courses students need and to ensure that students progress toward graduation in a timely manner.

“The college has only reduced minor elective course offerings, not courses students need for degrees and graduation,” Shoemaker said. “Over 90 percent of courses required for majors in the college are taught by tenure-track faculty with terminal degrees.”

Faye Gilbert, Dean of the College of Business and Economics, said her division has taken its adjunct budget to $0 for fall 2009 to provide funding for other areas on campus. About 95 percent of courses will be taught by Ph.D.-qualified faculty, she explained. “To the best of my knowledge, no classes were cancelled for fall,” Gilbert said. “Hopefully, enrollments will increase and we will weather the economic storm very well.”

Brian Conniff, Dean of the ?College of Humanities and Behavioral Sciences, said that controlling the adjunct faculty budget allows his college to hire full-time faculty in areas important to the future of the university. “Some other universities have responded to the financial downturn with a hiring freeze,” Conniff said, “but we have decided not to use that approach because we want to move forward with our high priorities, including the new core curriculum and our new graduate programs.”

Impact on Adjunct Instructors

While eliminating classes, increasing class size, and increasing the course load for full-time faculty are helping to take care of budgets, often lost in this fact is the ramifications on the lives of adjunct instructors.

Juan Urista has been teaching two classes in Anthropology in recent years: Anth 121, Intro to Cultural Anthropology, and Anth 122, Intro to Archaeology. Because of budget cuts the elimination of Anthropology as a major, Urista will not be back in the fall. “As far as I know, the amount of Cultural Anthropology classes will be reduced,” Urista said, adding that full-time professor Cliff Boyd was the primary candidate to teach Archaeology classes.

“Basically, my tenure here at Radford is over, and most likely my career as a professsor is put on hold while I remain in the area because there are very few opportunities to teach anthropology here,” Urista said. “Off to the field I go to work in contract archaeology.”

Stacey Prices has normally taught two to four classes per semester as an adjunct instructor in Communication, though this semester she is teaching just one section of Print Production. Price said she fears that the Print Production class will be cut. “If so, it will hurt our students,” she said. “This class is not mandatory but is so important for our communications students.” Price added that she has been teaching the class for the past six ears and receives e-mails from former students saying that what they learned in her class helped them to get a job.

Price also teaches at Virginia Tech and said she hopes to continue teaching there. “We have not heard the docket for fall yet,” Price said, adding that she thinks she will have her two sections of Advanced Media Writing at Tech as there is a waiting list for the class.

Many people around Radford University assume Michele Ren is a full-time faculty member but that’s not so. She’s been teaching Women’s Studies every fall and spring (and for three summers) since the fall of 1994. She has also taught English 101, 102, and 203. But Ren will be losing her Women’s Studies class next fall.

“We were cut from four classes to one; it will be taught by the program director,” Ren said. “I’ll now be doing freshman composition only. I have taught composition for 12 years, so that’s fine, but variety helps to prevent burnout. And, since my Ph.D. is in American Studies, which is an interdisciplinary field, it was nice to teach in more than one discipline. Women’s Studies is also closer to my area of study than is composition, so, it’s a bit disappointing to lose that connection with my scholarship. I’ve also advised the Women’s Studies Club for three years now. We’ve done a lot of campus programming over the last three years and I assume that work will suffer a bit if I don’t know the students and/or don’t have the time to work with them.”

Students Speak Out

Cynthia Fife Coughlin is a senior who was majoring in Anthropology. Once RU eliminated her major, she decided to graduate instead with a degree in Interdisciplinary Studies. She said she has enjoyed the adjunct instructors she has had at RU and she fears class sizes becoming too big.

“The small classes, at most 35 kids, are largely responsible for my continued attachment to Radford University,” Coughlin said. “My teachers know my face, my level of participation, and very importantly, how well I perform academically. Large, anonymous classes preclude this personal, rewarding, and enduring support from adjunct and faculty staff members.”
Coughlin added that the adjuncts she has enjoyed at Radford have been extremely knowledgeable, dedicated, willing to take suggestions from their students about how to enhance educational opportunities, energetic, unjaded, and fresh.

“The instructors are the architects of the class,” Coughlin said. “When the university fails to support them they are unable to support us, the students.”

Coughlin said that she has been accepted into the Graduate School at RU. “I have not decided about accepting their invitation,” she said. “I want the Grad Cert in Appalachian Literature. If that is no longer available I may decline.”

Another RU senior said that Radford strives on having smaller-sized classes, which allows for more teacher/student interaction. Taking that away, she fears, is going to change things drastically. The senior also said that she has found that her instructors who have been cut for next semester are taking less interest in their classes this semester. “I’ve noticed those teachers canceling class,” she said.

Aysha Bodenhamer is a junior Sociology student with minors in Mandarin Chinese and International Studies. “I personally chose to come to Radford as an out-of-state student because of the quality liberal arts education I could gain,” Bodenhamer said. “From what I am hearing, the foundation of Radford University’s strength—liberal arts—is slowly, but surely disappearing. This truly upsets me as a student.”

Bodenhamer said she does not see the purpose of cutting adjunct faculty when RU already has a need for more instructors. “I value my classes where I can create a personal relationship with my professor inside and outside the classroom,” she said. “If more faculty are cut, this will cause class sizes to escalate drastically. I did not come to Radford to be a number in a lecture hall, I came to Radford to be an individual in a classroom.”

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Tim W. Jackson is Editor of the New River Voice.