Via C&EN, this grim news (article by Krystal Vasquez):
Faced with a budget shortfall, the University of Akron (UA) is proposing to merge its department of chemistry; department of chemical, biomolecular, and corrosion engineering; and School of Polymer Science and Polymer Engineering and to cut up to 15 faculty positions across these disciplines.
If the the Ohio public research institution moves forward with the proposal as is, 10 of the cuts are slated to come from the polymer school, says Toni Bisconti, president of the Akron chapter of the American Association of University Professors, the union that represents the university’s full-time faculty. The school currently has 19 full-time faculty members.
The planned cuts, first reported by Signal Akron in November, are being proposed through a process known as retrenchment, which allows the university administration to eliminate faculty positions in the event of a significant financial crisis. The retrenchment follows several other cost-cutting and revenue-generating measures that the university recently implemented to reduce the $27 million deficit it expects to carry into 2025.
The chemistry department chair in the C&EN piece indicates that there are no cuts forthcoming, which is good, but cold comfort to the polymer program. It strikes me that the polymer program at Akron is prominent, and therefore, it is surprising to me that the UAkron administration is participating in seemingly destroying a world-class program. Best wishes to all of those affected, especially the graduate students and postdocs.
Retrenchment -that's a brilliant idea. I hope somebody gets a nice bonus for that. Money saved is money earned.
ReplyDeletePretty insane. It's like pushing your car into a river to save gas money.
ReplyDeleteI've checked once or twice, but is there any word about which faculty would be on the chopping block? Selfishly, I don't love the idea of 10 polymer scientists with established programs entering the academic job market at once when it's been a tight market for that field for a few years now.
With significant cuts to scientific funding expected under the next administration, the academic job market is likely to tighten even further. Universities will have fewer open positions as the ability to recover indirect costs from faculty research grants diminishes. This reduction in funding will strain academic departments, making it increasingly difficult to sustain research activities and hire new faculty. As a result, academia in the U.S. is poised to face a sharp decline.
DeleteAnon6:56PM, care to offer a number for the 25-26 season? We're typically around 550 for a full year's cycle.
DeleteCJ, I’m guessing a conservative additional 10% reduction in positions
DeleteForgot to mention this year already looks like we’re 10% less than previous years
DeletePlus the downward trend of chemistry undergrad enrollment...
DeleteHow many administrators are they cutting?
ReplyDeleteVery good question! My guess is that firing some professors will enable them to hire even more administrators. https://universitytitlegenerator.com/
DeleteI'm surprised Akron is having trouble because they do a lot of CASE industry adjacent stuff. I would expect them to have an easier time getting industry funding than most others.
ReplyDelete