2008 Woodie Awards
Budget Crisis '08
Deans propose departmental shufflings to save $200K
Jay Baker
Issue date: 12/4/08 Section: Campus News
Faculty from all five colleges at UTM gathered at 4 p.m. Thursday in separate meetings to discuss department shufflings proposed by the deans of each college.
The proposed changes would save around $207,000 when they take effect July 1, 2009, should they be enacted, and according to sources the changes could save up to $400,000 in the 2009-2010 fiscal year.
"I would have hoped to have never seen times like this," said Dr. Mary Hall, dean of the College of Education and Behavior Science, of the current budget crisis facing the UT system.
The deans made the proposed changes based on a request from the Organization and Efficiency Task Force (OETF) to reduce the number of colleges from five to three.
But Hall said the deans felt this would detract from the culture at UTM.
"There is a culture on this campus that connects with the colleges," Hall said.
David Coffey, interim Co-Dean of the College of Humanities and Fine Arts echoed Hall's sentiments in another meeting.
"We are breaking up a family and it hurts, but that's what we are proposing," Coffey said.
The unanimous move by the deans of all five undergraduate colleges and the dean of the graduate school also prevents the potential layoffs that would ensue in the event that the number of colleges was reduced.
"We don't lose people. We don't lose programs. We maintain academic integrity and strengthen our position," Coffey said.
The proposed changes would not take effect until after next semester, but Hall said that students would not likely see a significant difference in their education for the time being.
"The biggest impact for students will be contact with a different department ... [for instance] change in where you might go for advising," Hall said.
The departmental changes come as a result of a nearly $1.3 million budget shortfall this year. Other attempts to save money came from halting computer rotation, not filling empty positions, leaving graduate assistant positions open and cutting the operating budget, Hall said.
But Psychology Lecturer Brian Johnson worried aloud at one of the meetings that making these changes permanent may have ill effects.
"At some point, we're not only bare bones: we're anorexic," Johnson said.
Jim Byford, dean of the College of Agriculture and Natural Sciences, worries that the worst is yet to come, though.
"I don't know what's going to happen early next semester, if we begin to look at these tremendous cuts," Byford said. "What we've done so far is child's play."
Ernest Moser, dean of the College of Business and Public Affairs, made a similar statement.
"I don't think this is the end of what's going on," Moser said.
Byford may be right if Gov. Phil Bredesen's warning of a possible 15 percent budget recession for Fall 2009 does have to go into effect.
Chancellor Tom Rakes said in an e-mail to faculty that cuts of that size could translate to a $3 million to $4.6 million decrease in state funding.
John Petersen, president of the UT System, sent a similar e-mail.
"[W]e expect to receive a firm budget reduction figure from the State in mid-December, and out plans call for presenting a proposed UT budget to Gov. Phil Bredesen in January. Multiple budget-reduction scenarios are being drawn up at campuses to emphasize strategic cuts rather than across-the-board reductions," Petersen said in the e-mail.
The proposed changes introduced in Thursday's meetings include:
- Doing away with the Department of Geology Geography and Physics and moving Geosciences (including geology, geographic information systems, physical geography, and meteorology) to a renamed Department of Agriculture, Natural Resources and Geosciences. Physics courses and faculty would be added to the Department of Engineering.
- Moving the Department of Communications to the renamed College of Business & [Global or International] Affairs.
- Moving Political Science to the Department of History in the College of Humanities and Fine Arts.
- Splitting up the Department of Computer Science and Information Systems. Information Systems will move to take Political Science's place in the renamed Department of Management, Marketing and Information Systems, while Computer Science will be joining the Department of Mathematics, Statistics making it the Department of Mathematics, Statistics and Computer Science.
- The Department of Psychology will be absorbed into the Department of Psychology, Sociology, Social Work and Criminal Justice taking the place of the soon to be defunct Anthropology.
- The Office of University Studies, including the Bachelor of University Studies degree, will now come under the College of Education and Behavioral Sciences.
- The Department of Modern Foreign Languages will be merged with the English Department to make a new Department of Languages and Literatures.
- The Department of History and Philosophy will pick up Political Science and possibly cultural Geography becoming the Department of History, Philosophy and Political Science. The geography faculty, due to the diverse nature of the field, are being given the choice to whether they would like to keep the cultural and physical foci together or whether the cultural geography will move to the College of Humanities and Fine Arts under the Department of History.
More information will be posted here as it becomes available.
___
Reporters Charlie McIntosh, Casey Curlin, Jon-Michael St. Amant, Matt Cook and Joshua Lemons contributed to this report.
The proposed changes would save around $207,000 when they take effect July 1, 2009, should they be enacted, and according to sources the changes could save up to $400,000 in the 2009-2010 fiscal year.
"I would have hoped to have never seen times like this," said Dr. Mary Hall, dean of the College of Education and Behavior Science, of the current budget crisis facing the UT system.
The deans made the proposed changes based on a request from the Organization and Efficiency Task Force (OETF) to reduce the number of colleges from five to three.
But Hall said the deans felt this would detract from the culture at UTM.
"There is a culture on this campus that connects with the colleges," Hall said.
David Coffey, interim Co-Dean of the College of Humanities and Fine Arts echoed Hall's sentiments in another meeting.
"We are breaking up a family and it hurts, but that's what we are proposing," Coffey said.
The unanimous move by the deans of all five undergraduate colleges and the dean of the graduate school also prevents the potential layoffs that would ensue in the event that the number of colleges was reduced.
"We don't lose people. We don't lose programs. We maintain academic integrity and strengthen our position," Coffey said.
The proposed changes would not take effect until after next semester, but Hall said that students would not likely see a significant difference in their education for the time being.
"The biggest impact for students will be contact with a different department ... [for instance] change in where you might go for advising," Hall said.
The departmental changes come as a result of a nearly $1.3 million budget shortfall this year. Other attempts to save money came from halting computer rotation, not filling empty positions, leaving graduate assistant positions open and cutting the operating budget, Hall said.
But Psychology Lecturer Brian Johnson worried aloud at one of the meetings that making these changes permanent may have ill effects.
"At some point, we're not only bare bones: we're anorexic," Johnson said.
Jim Byford, dean of the College of Agriculture and Natural Sciences, worries that the worst is yet to come, though.
"I don't know what's going to happen early next semester, if we begin to look at these tremendous cuts," Byford said. "What we've done so far is child's play."
Ernest Moser, dean of the College of Business and Public Affairs, made a similar statement.
"I don't think this is the end of what's going on," Moser said.
Byford may be right if Gov. Phil Bredesen's warning of a possible 15 percent budget recession for Fall 2009 does have to go into effect.
Chancellor Tom Rakes said in an e-mail to faculty that cuts of that size could translate to a $3 million to $4.6 million decrease in state funding.
John Petersen, president of the UT System, sent a similar e-mail.
"[W]e expect to receive a firm budget reduction figure from the State in mid-December, and out plans call for presenting a proposed UT budget to Gov. Phil Bredesen in January. Multiple budget-reduction scenarios are being drawn up at campuses to emphasize strategic cuts rather than across-the-board reductions," Petersen said in the e-mail.
The proposed changes introduced in Thursday's meetings include:
- Doing away with the Department of Geology Geography and Physics and moving Geosciences (including geology, geographic information systems, physical geography, and meteorology) to a renamed Department of Agriculture, Natural Resources and Geosciences. Physics courses and faculty would be added to the Department of Engineering.
- Moving the Department of Communications to the renamed College of Business & [Global or International] Affairs.
- Moving Political Science to the Department of History in the College of Humanities and Fine Arts.
- Splitting up the Department of Computer Science and Information Systems. Information Systems will move to take Political Science's place in the renamed Department of Management, Marketing and Information Systems, while Computer Science will be joining the Department of Mathematics, Statistics making it the Department of Mathematics, Statistics and Computer Science.
- The Department of Psychology will be absorbed into the Department of Psychology, Sociology, Social Work and Criminal Justice taking the place of the soon to be defunct Anthropology.
- The Office of University Studies, including the Bachelor of University Studies degree, will now come under the College of Education and Behavioral Sciences.
- The Department of Modern Foreign Languages will be merged with the English Department to make a new Department of Languages and Literatures.
- The Department of History and Philosophy will pick up Political Science and possibly cultural Geography becoming the Department of History, Philosophy and Political Science. The geography faculty, due to the diverse nature of the field, are being given the choice to whether they would like to keep the cultural and physical foci together or whether the cultural geography will move to the College of Humanities and Fine Arts under the Department of History.
More information will be posted here as it becomes available.
___
Reporters Charlie McIntosh, Casey Curlin, Jon-Michael St. Amant, Matt Cook and Joshua Lemons contributed to this report.
Viewing Comments 1 - 10 of 22
Jake Doster
posted 12/05/08 @ 10:31 AM CST
Maybe I'm out of the loop or just dont' understand how things work...but how in the heck does renaming departments save us money? If we really wanna save money in the UT system it starts with pay cuts. (Continued…)
Red Neckerson
posted 12/06/08 @ 7:35 AM CST
Jake, you make a good point. Congress isn't accepting moving people around in the Big 3 auto manufacturers...this seems like a big shell game being played by the higher-ups in education. (Continued…)
Captain Agnostic
posted 12/06/08 @ 7:29 PM CST
You can point fingers all you want, but the point is the UT System is in a budget crisis, ultimately because of Tennessee sales tax. We're in a real recession people, and it's not in a hurry to leave. (Continued…)
UTM rocks
posted 12/07/08 @ 10:23 AM CST
Yes what we need is more 70 Mil dollar projects that we can't use our staff, then we will wonder were all the schools money went then we will call it a recession. (Continued…)
Lee in History Dept
posted 12/07/08 @ 10:08 PM CST
I guess I only speak from what I can personally experience (novel idea), but being a History major and PoliSci minor, I like the idea of the PoliSci dept in History, never understood why not. (Continued…)
Dwight Gatwood
posted 12/08/08 @ 9:39 AM CST
In my 36 years @ UTM, we weathered serious downturns, at one point even making a list of what gets axed if/when "financial exigency" was declared. This one is potentially worse, but it would seem that timely and effective strategizing is being done, and UTM will survive. (Continued…)
David
posted 12/08/08 @ 9:06 PM CST
If anyone can enlighten me on how much money the athletics department makes for the school, that would be great. Also if someone could explain why teachers are offered less money than deans and chancellors. (Continued…)
Arm & Hammer
posted 12/09/08 @ 12:04 PM CST
Lola tastes just like cherry cola is right. Athletics takes up the brunt of the university's spending. In fact, new programs have come about this year while academic programs have trembled in fear. (Continued…)
Hey-nonny-nonny-mous
posted 12/09/08 @ 2:40 PM CST
There's a budget crisis, but UT is paying Fulmer $12,500 a month through the end of February to be a special assistant to Petersen? In what universe does that make sense?
John
posted 12/11/08 @ 3:19 PM CST
I don't think that Political Science, the way we study today, belongs in the Dept. of History. If anything, it is a branch of Philosophy, but the way it is taught at UTM, it belongs more in the new College of Business and Global Affairs that is being proposed. (Continued…)
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