UE Faculty Face Devastating Cuts
Daniel Byrne, Secretary-Treasurer UEAAUP, ueaaup@gmail.com
Evansville— 12/11/20 — The President of the University of Evansville, Christopher M. Pietruszkiewicz, yesterday unveiled a plan that will cut essential departments, majors, and faculty members. The three departments to be eliminated entirely are Electrical Engineering and Computer Science, Music, and Philosophy and Religion. In addition to the twelve majors within those departments, five more will be cut: Art History, History, Physics, Political Science, and Spanish. Faculty will be released from all five of those departments. There will also be losses in Biology, Chemistry, English and Creative Writing, and Math. In total, 38 Faculty members will lose their jobs: thirty-two in the College of Arts and Sciences and six in the School of Engineering and Computer Science.
In offering his plan, the President repeatedly referred to it as a “draft†and said that nothing has been decided as of yet. At the same time, he also pointed out that “impacted†Faculty members will be given 18-months notice and that such Faculty members will be meeting with the Provost, Dr. Michael Austin, “over the next couple of days.†Furthermore, the President noted several times that Faculty members will be given numerous opportunities “over the course of the next couple of weeks†to provide “questions and answers and comments and recommendations.†Yet, when asked if the Faculty, the Senate or any committee thereof would ever vote on the proposed plan, the President’s entire response was: “We would love the input of the faculty in general and if it comes as individual recommendations, if it comes as group recommendations, we’re happy for all of them.â€
The President’s approach to program change constitutes a serious and substantial breach of the university’s shared governance structure. Within that structure, the role of the faculty is clearly defined: “Faculty, acting with the President, determine all matters of educational policy with respect to academic programs including degree requirements, honorary degrees, curriculum changes, academic standards.â€
Determination is not “questions and answers and comments and recommendations.†Determination is voting. This is why the Faculty Senate has a Curriculum Committee that votes on program changes and then submits approved changes to the Senate for its endorsement. The President’s plan offers no recognition of the Faculty’s primary responsibility for educational policy.
We, the Faculty, deeply oppose the coming cuts and will fight them until they are withdrawn. Above and beyond the Faculty members who will lose their jobs, those cuts will also significantly harm the university’s staff, its administrators, and, most importantly, its students. As the President noted yesterday, the university’s “foundation†is its ability to offer a “well-rounded education†to each and every student. The coming cuts will remove departments and majors and so limit students’ major and course options. Those cuts will also necessarily result in a substantial contraction of the university’s General Education program. Every student at the university participates in this program and so every student will be affected.
We call upon students, staff members, administrators, alumni, board members, and everyone in the Evansville community to stand with us in fighting these cuts. The time has come to Save UE. Let’s do it!
To learn more:
• Visit our website at saveue.com • Follow us on Facebook at Save UE
• Follow us on Twitter at @Save_UE • Follow us on Instagram at save.ue
• E-mail us at ueaaup@gmail.com
