Time to leave
More than ever, academia is suffering from a bad economy and budget crisis.
And it's not always as pronounced as rising tuition.
This summer, seven tenure track and tenured English Department professors will leave the university because of retirement or other reasons.
With seven leaving, the department must scramble and thus replace the experienced professors with more inexperienced individuals - known as temporary faculty.
There are always differing reasons why faculty members choose to leave - retirement, a change in career, or a new job opportunity.
But the seven - which represent close to 22 percent of the department's tenured and tenure track faculty - is too high a number.
And each one was hired within the last four years, which is too high a turnover rate.
Tenure track professors are valuable, as they still must prove themselves on a yearly basis. They are given an evaluation at the end of each year to determine their performance.
Both tenured and tenure track professors are members of CMU's full-time faculty.
Central prides itself on providing a more enriched learning environment than schools like Michigan State, which hands many of its lower level classes over to graduate assistants.
With an influx of part-time faculty on campus, this mission takes a step back.
Temporary faculty members - although many are good instructors - do not give students the amount of insight needed in a given field.
Although the departure of professors is not always under the control of departments, more should be done to keep tenure track and tenured professors at CMU.
A big draw to incoming freshmen is the assumption they will be taught by experienced, full-time instructors.
Although full-time faculty members will be eventually rehired, the search process is prolonged and not always an easy one. Seven vacancies might take more than a year to fill.
Which leads us to compensation.
Each of the seven made around $50,000 per year, which is comparable to other universities at the same level.
It would be great if CMU could offer the same amount of money as research universities like the University of Massachusetts Amherst, where Heidi Holder is relocating.
But it can't. It is simply at the mercy of its professors to not bolt at the same time.
But CMU must continue to pay attention to its faculty members and remember its primary purpose - to present the best opportunities for its students that it possibly can.
