Despite its intention to lay off 10 faculty members by the summer of 2012, ACU is accepting applications for eight open faculty positions, most of which will be filled by fall, 2012.
Dr. Greg Straughn, interim provost, said the new hires reflect both replacements of current faculty who are retiring or stepping down at the end of the school year as well as investments of the university in areas with historic and potential growth. Dr. Greg Straughn said the new hires will either replace current faculty members who are retiring or stepping down or reflect the university’s investment in areas of historic or potential growth.
“The university has looked at strategic areas of growth over the past five years,” Straughn said. “We’re going to make sure that the new priorities we put out there will be able to come online and flourish the way we’d expected even if that means realigning other programs that we hadn’t expected.”
Straughn said most of the jobs ACU is offering are simply refilling positions of current faculty that are retiring or stepping down by summer 2012. One such position is in the Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry. The university will hire Dr. Bruce Hopkins to teach organic chemistry to fill the position currently occupied by Dr. Perry Reeves, professor of chemistry, when he retires in summer, 2012, said Dr. Kim Pamplin, associate professor and chair of the chemistry department.
Pamplin said he believed not refilling Reeves’ position would have lessened the quality of the education the department could offer.
“Not having two organic chemists would mean that would mean one person would have to do four labs and two lectures a week,” Pamplin said. “That’s not sustainable.”
Replacing retired professors with new faculty still creates savings over time because in most cases new faculty members have a lower salary than tenured professors, Straughn said.
Other job openings are new positions the university has created to be able to offer students the most sought-after programs and training that the university has not been able to provide till this point. The university is looking to hire an experienced engineer to work with the Department of Engineering and Physics in developing an engineering program by Fall, 2012, said Dr. Rusty Towell, professor and chair of the physics department.
Towell said in an email that he believed the engineering program that is under development is a good investment for the university.
“Engineering is the most requested degree by students considering coming to ACU that we do not currently offer,” Towell said in an email.
The university decided to make the engineering program a priority because of both the student demand for the degree as well as the historical growth and quality of the physics department, Straughn said.
“It’s not just growth or lack of growth,” Straughn said. “It’s the realization of the breadth of what a university should do.”
He said it was important not to shortchange the new program even though the university was cutting back its budget because of the possibilities an engineering program opens.
“The Department of Physics is premier on campus in both research and faculty presentations,” Straughn said. “We need to make sure that the engineering program will fit into that quickly and easily.”
Another area with growing student demand is nursing, Straughn said. Dr. Susan Kehl, associate professor of nursing, is developing curriculum for the new program ACU will offer on its campus by fall, 2013. She is asking the university to hire two full-time nursing professors to help teach the new classes.
Although the nursing program’s budget was not cut during the university’s realignment, Kehl said the university’s financial situation has motivated her to create the most cost-efficient plan possible. She intends to use adjunct professors to teach some classes and is planning to keep labs and classrooms that are student friendly but also compact.
Kehl said she believed the nursing program will help ACU move toward its enrollment goals as well as meet a need for students. However, she hopes that the money the program will both raise and save will allow other programs and departments on campus to expand as well.
“I want to promote the nursing program with the utmost sensitivity to what’s going on through the whole ACU environment,” Khel said. “The expansion of some programs at the cost of others is very difficult and painful.”
