Arts and Sciences will extend last year’s faculty retirement incentive offer in its attempt to reduce faculty size.
The Trinity College of Arts and Sciences is looking to further shrink the size of its faculty to combat projected budgetary deficits for fiscal years 2011-2012 and 2012-2013, Alvin Crumbliss, interim dean of the faculty of Arts and Sciences and dean of Trinity College, announced at the Arts and Sciences Council meeting Sept. 16.
The University will supplement retirement packages of professors who commit to retire by June 30, 2012 with money from the University’s central fund. Professors who meet the Rule of 75—their age and years of work sum to 75—are eligible to individually negotiate retirement packages with academic deans.
Provost Peter Lange said this year will “almost certainly” be the last Duke offers these incentives, though it is unclear when faculty members must decide whether to commit to retire.
“Each faculty member has different needs and ideas about what they want to accomplish before retiring and what they want to do in retirement,” Crumbliss said.
He noted that incentives could include slowly phasing out of teaching or providing opportunities to finish research or a book before retirement.
It is currently unclear how many professors may retire, as faculty members can discuss retirement options with various administrators, including a departmental chair or divisional dean, Crumbliss said.
Last year, 14 professors accepted the faculty retirement incentive and 44 other professors entered individual agreements with the University to retire in the future.
Trinity currently has 645 tenured, tenure-track and non-tenured faculty—the most in history. At the Academic Council meeting Sept. 23, Lange said Trinity has acquired 88 new faculty in the last six years, increasing about 3 percent annually—growth that Crumbliss has said is unsustainable.
Reductions to Arts and Sciences faculty size are largely the product of reduced endowment income, less predictable gift income, a decreased rate of faculty departures and retirements and a cap on undergraduate enrollment, Crumbliss said.
For the next few years, departing professors must outnumber incoming faculty, Crumbliss said, and Lange told the Academic Council that Trinity needs to see attrition of 20 to 30 positions.
For academic year 2010-2011, Trinity has hired about 12 new professors, compared to 26 new hires for 2009-2010 and 32 the year before. Next year, the college plans to add fewer than 20 faculty members, Crumbliss said.
A “reduced faculty search plan” for next academic year prioritizes assistant professor searches over senior searches; allocates searches to “assure renewal opprtunities across departments;” allows for faculty additions in departments consistent with developmental plans; responds to teaching needs and resumes pending searches from last year.
Lange said the University is prioritizing assistant professor searches to balance the number of senior faculty that have recently been hired—a shift that allows for a short-term budgetary advantage.
“So now we need to readjust by hiring junior faculty as well,” he said. “We would have had to have this anyway—the tenure and median age are higher than they were.”
Budgetary incentives were not the only criteria for this decision, Crumbliss said, noting that he expects to add about two senior faculty members next year.
The 2010-2011 budget does not include the salaries and fringe benefits for about 35 faculty members funded through the provost’s strategic funds, Crumbliss said in his address at the Arts and Sciences Council meeting. These costs will gradually be worked into Trinity’s budget in the next three to five years.
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