By Daniel Johnson, Sports Editor

At least four members of the ACU faculty will not return for the 2008-09 school year after university officials decided to not renew their contracts in early February in response to the more than $3 million budget deficit and declining enrollment numbers.

University officials would not release the exact number of faculty members who will not return or their names but did confirm the connection between the budget deficit, enrollment dropping and the decision to not renew the contracts.

“Almost every year we make difficult personnel decisions; this is not unique,” said Dr. Dwayne VanRheenen, provost. VanRheenen added the decisions were based on a long list of circumstances, not just the budget and enrollment problems.

VanRheenen was one of fourteen members of the Vision Leadership Team, that Dr. Royce Money, president of the university, appointed to assess the university and make recommendations for the future. VanRheenen said the did not make specific recommendations on whose contracts various departments would not renew – that decision laid in the hands of the head of the departments and the dean of the respective colleges. VanRheenen said no faculty members with tenure or on tenure-tract were chosen.

“Whenever this happens, whether it is this year or previous years, it is a conversation that takes place with the department chair, dean of the college and me,” VanRheenen said.

In an e-mail to all faculty last week, the VLT explained why cuts were being made and expressed difficulty of the decision.

“If the university is going to live within its resources, it will have to come to grips with the fact that we are over $3 million short of making our annual budget,” the e-mail said. “Divesting certain resources so that we can live within our means is painful. Among other things, it means that some people who are a part of the university this year will not return next year.”

Chandra Lewis-Qualls, instructor of English, is one of those whose contract was not renewed and said she felt betrayed when she was given the news at the beginning of February.

“It was just really bad timing for me because I’m close to finishing my dissertation,” Lewis-Qualls said.

Lewis-Qualls said the reasons she was given for the non renewal of her contract included the budget problems and the advancement of ACU’s 21st Century Vision. But Lewis-Qualls, who received her bachelor’s and master’s degree from ACU, said she doubts the claim that
the decision is for the good of her alma mater.

“I teach a lot of freshmen, and they need someone that is going to be down in the trenches showing them how to write,” Lewis-Qualls said. “If ACU gets rid of all their instructors I think the students are going to suffer.”

Freshman enrollment has decreased this spring, and Lewis-Qualls said the decision to not renew her contract may be connected to the lower numbers. Only 90 percent of the about 900 fall entering freshmen returned for the spring semester.

Lewis-Qualls’ colleague and close friend Dr. Steven Moore, assistant professor of English, also had qualms with the university’s decision.

“When you start seeing people that you work with for so many years and people that you know and love, and all of a sudden you turn around and they’re no longer there; of course it gives you a sense that something is wrong and that you could be next,” Moore said.

Moore added that he thinks the faculty morale has decreased since the decisions were made and finds contradictions in the way the university went about dealing with the budget problems.

“I know we have to be a business and Christian institution at the same time,” Moore said. “I realize that people in positions of authority have a very difficult position, but there is another side of me that says, ‘Did we really go far enough to save the jobs of those that are dedicated to this institution?'”

And though Lewis-Qualls does not know where her next teaching job will be, she said she does know that her days in Abilene may be numbered.

“I’d like to stay in Abilene because I have family here and lots of friends, but there aren’t a whole lot of jobs out there for my area of study,” Lewis-Qualls said.