2008 Woodie Awards
Balancing the budget : Job security in a budget crisis
Some faculty are safer than others
Meagan Dobson
Issue date: 4/28/08 Section: News
Faculty salaries and benefits make up about 51 percent of USM's budget. That's upwards of $50 million that the university can't really touch when it looks to cut nearly $7 million from next year's budget to start moving USM back into the black.
Tenured faculty are almost guaranteed to keep their jobs, barring legal complaints, and both full and part-time faculty are protected by their respective unions.
Looking to the 2008-09 fiscal year, which begins July 1, USM's administration is still unsure of -- or has not yet announced -- how many positions will be eliminated.
Those who will feel it the most are part-time faculty whose contracts are expiring and adjunct faculty who work part-time and are hired to fill the fluctuating needs of the university. Neither position is eligible for tenure, though contracted employees who are maintained for more than six years receive just-cause continuation, which is a sort of tenure, making it difficult to remove their positions. This permanence is not the same as tenure in that there is no possibility for salary increases or rising in position.
Two English faculty who found themselves not rehired at the expiration of their contracts following this semester are Margaret Reimer and Jura Avizienis. The pair began at the university with one-year contracts and then continued on with three-year contracts.
Their not being rehired has been the site of some controversy, and union officials have been involved.
Reimer says that she is fortunate, as she was hired as a part-time instructor on the Saco campus -- though is somewhat upset that her benefits have been cut.
She is also thankful that Avizienis was also lucky -- she was hired as full-time faculty at LAC.
Reimer is upset about the way in which her position was eliminated. "The department has stated publicly that the reason for the non-renewal of the two contracts is due to a change in focus - that they need teachers who can pick up creative writing courses."
Tenured faculty are almost guaranteed to keep their jobs, barring legal complaints, and both full and part-time faculty are protected by their respective unions.
Looking to the 2008-09 fiscal year, which begins July 1, USM's administration is still unsure of -- or has not yet announced -- how many positions will be eliminated.
Those who will feel it the most are part-time faculty whose contracts are expiring and adjunct faculty who work part-time and are hired to fill the fluctuating needs of the university. Neither position is eligible for tenure, though contracted employees who are maintained for more than six years receive just-cause continuation, which is a sort of tenure, making it difficult to remove their positions. This permanence is not the same as tenure in that there is no possibility for salary increases or rising in position.
Two English faculty who found themselves not rehired at the expiration of their contracts following this semester are Margaret Reimer and Jura Avizienis. The pair began at the university with one-year contracts and then continued on with three-year contracts.
Their not being rehired has been the site of some controversy, and union officials have been involved.
Reimer says that she is fortunate, as she was hired as a part-time instructor on the Saco campus -- though is somewhat upset that her benefits have been cut.
She is also thankful that Avizienis was also lucky -- she was hired as full-time faculty at LAC.
Reimer is upset about the way in which her position was eliminated. "The department has stated publicly that the reason for the non-renewal of the two contracts is due to a change in focus - that they need teachers who can pick up creative writing courses."
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