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I know it's OT, but I also know there are some Higher Education professionals on the board who would find this interesting. I've been talking on here about this happening for years, and that they likely won't be the only institution having extreme reorganization strategies in Ohio in the future centered around technical and business oriented programs and leaving behind the liberal arts and sciences, which is something that really isn't necessary for municipal institutions who are not worried about their media rankings. I wouldn't be shocked to see them partner with Kent State in the near future to form a more regional education model (and BGSU and UToledo would be wise to look at the same).

https://www.cleveland.com/news/2019/03/u...culty.html

Quote:University of Akron offers buy-out to 47 percent of faculty
Posted Mar 18, 5:58 PM

AKRON, Ohio -- The University of Akron offered a buy-out to about 47 percent of faculty on Monday in an effort to balance its budget.

Taking a “voluntary separation or retirement" offer would pay a faculty member 100 percent of 2019-20 base pay, split into two installments. The employee would leave the university on May 31, 2020. The first payment would come on July 2020, the second in January of 2021.


Choosing to leave the university would not affect retirement plans.

The offer is to full-time permanent (non-visiting) faculty who are not in what the university calls a “Strategic Investment Area.” No law school, polymer science, or engineering faculty can take the offer. UA spokesman Wayne Hill wrote in an email about 47 percent of faculty, or 340 people, are eligible.

See the full “Strategic Investment Area” list at the bottom of this post.

The offer is the latest attempt to slim UA’s budget. The university expects it needs to make about $15 million in cuts.

“We designed this VSRP to ensure that areas of strategic investment at the university will continue to have the needed faculty members to achieve the investment goals,” UA chief financial officer Nathan Mortimer said in a news release. "For those who are eligible for the VSRP, this offering may enable them to take their career in a different direction or to retire, depending on their personal situation.”

Interim President John Green announced last week that the university would put reorganization efforts on hold after delivering a proposal the week before. The proposal listed no involuntary faculty cuts.


Beginning reorganization talks would start again, Green wrote in a letter last week, if faculty and staff did not make significant progress on a list of goals. Those goals included new programs in “areas of strength” like polymers, corrosion, biomimicry and cybersecurity, decreasing the amount of money used to subsidize research from the general fund and making it easier to work across departments and colleges.

Eligible faculty members will be contacted by mail by April 1, 2019, and will have until May 31, 2019, to decide, according to a university release.

There is no target number for the amount of faculty that need to take the offer, Hill wrote, and there are no plans for layoffs if a number of faculty do not take the plan.

Faculty in these departments are not eligible for a buy-out from University of Akron announced Monday.

Did Wright State ever resolve their teacher's strike? I figure its just a matter of time until they become a regional branch school for UC.

I think Wright State lives off the profit from their branch campus in Celina, Ohio.

University of Cincinnati Wright Branch
Fairborn, OH.

UC grad, live in Fairborn.

WSU has a great theater arts and movie production unit with funding from Tom Hanks. Has medical school and engineering school. Engineering school would tie in well with UC engineering and give them a connection with Area B of Wright-Patterson AFB just down the road. Air Force Institute of Tech. is also located at Area B, along with Aeronautical Systems Division.

Just a thought.

(03-19-2019 02:08 PM)BearcatMan Wrote:  I know it's OT, but I also know there are some Higher Education professionals on the board who would find this interesting. I've been talking on here about this happening for years, and that they likely won't be the only institution having extreme reorganization strategies in Ohio in the future centered around technical and business oriented programs and leaving behind the liberal arts and sciences, which is something that really isn't necessary for municipal institutions who are not worried about their media rankings. I wouldn't be shocked to see them partner with Kent State in the near future to form a more regional education model (and BGSU and UToledo would be wise to look at the same).

https://www.cleveland.com/news/2019/03/u...culty.html

Quote:University of Akron offers buy-out to 47 percent of faculty
Posted Mar 18, 5:58 PM

AKRON, Ohio -- The University of Akron offered a buy-out to about 47 percent of faculty on Monday in an effort to balance its budget.

Taking a “voluntary separation or retirement" offer would pay a faculty member 100 percent of 2019-20 base pay, split into two installments. The employee would leave the university on May 31, 2020. The first payment would come on July 2020, the second in January of 2021.


Choosing to leave the university would not affect retirement plans.

The offer is to full-time permanent (non-visiting) faculty who are not in what the university calls a “Strategic Investment Area.” No law school, polymer science, or engineering faculty can take the offer. UA spokesman Wayne Hill wrote in an email about 47 percent of faculty, or 340 people, are eligible.

See the full “Strategic Investment Area” list at the bottom of this post.

The offer is the latest attempt to slim UA’s budget. The university expects it needs to make about $15 million in cuts.

“We designed this VSRP to ensure that areas of strategic investment at the university will continue to have the needed faculty members to achieve the investment goals,” UA chief financial officer Nathan Mortimer said in a news release. "For those who are eligible for the VSRP, this offering may enable them to take their career in a different direction or to retire, depending on their personal situation.”

Interim President John Green announced last week that the university would put reorganization efforts on hold after delivering a proposal the week before. The proposal listed no involuntary faculty cuts.


Beginning reorganization talks would start again, Green wrote in a letter last week, if faculty and staff did not make significant progress on a list of goals. Those goals included new programs in “areas of strength” like polymers, corrosion, biomimicry and cybersecurity, decreasing the amount of money used to subsidize research from the general fund and making it easier to work across departments and colleges.

Eligible faculty members will be contacted by mail by April 1, 2019, and will have until May 31, 2019, to decide, according to a university release.

There is no target number for the amount of faculty that need to take the offer, Hill wrote, and there are no plans for layoffs if a number of faculty do not take the plan.

Faculty in these departments are not eligible for a buy-out from University of Akron announced Monday.

Thanks for sharing. As someone who also follows Ohio higher education closely, it begs the question if other Ohio publics will follow suit. I'm not sure the current number of our state institutions is, or should be, sustainable given a smaller cohort of high school graduates in the coming years.

I'm trusting we'll demonstrate some visionary leadership at UC if this winnowing process continues. Some steps have been taken in recent years to lobby the Statehouse jointly for UC and OSU as the largest public research engines in the state. This may be a critical time for Ohio to clearly delineate the two major players from the regional schools. Ohio has a much larger population than nearby Indiana, Iowa or Kansas yet each of those states has two clearly identifiable, recognized public research universities atop their systems. Ohio has that somewhat de facto with OSU and UC but needs to protect that turf if we're serious about attracting new ventures and new jobs to our corner of the Rust Belt.