Full-Time Faculty Workload Provision Removed from State Budget Bill

On Tuesday, the Ohio House of Representatives released Substitute House Bill 59 – the revised state budget bill. The provision in the original bill that would have required universities to increase workload for full-time faculty by one additional course from the previous academic year, if the university revised or created a workload policy, was removed from the bill. Taking its place is the following, innocuous language: The boards of trustees of state institutions of higher education shall ensure that faculty members devote a proper and judicious part of their work week to the actual instruction of students. Total class credit hours of production per academic term per full-time faculty member is expected to meet the standards set forth in the budget data submitted by the Chancellor of the Board of Regents. The Ohio Conference AAUP will continue to monitor the budget bill to ensure that this provision is not reinstated in the Ohio Senate.  Thank you to our members who took the time to contact Representatives on the Higher Education Subcommittee to lobby them on this issue. In addition, we must recognize Ohio Conference AAUP President John McNay for his testimony to the subcommittee, as well as his letter to the editor that appeared in last Saturday’s Columbus Dispatch.

April 19: Deadline to Reserve Hotel Rooms  for Campaign for the Future of  Higher Education Meeting  Next Friday, April 19 is the deadline to reserve hotel rooms to attend the Campaign for the Future of Higher Education (CFHE) meeting in Columbus, Ohio. The meeting will be held from 6pm on Friday, May 17 through 12pm on Sunday, May 19 at the Columbus Airport Marriott.   You can visit the Columbus Airport Marriott website and use Group Code CFECFEA to make a reservation.  You also can call the hotel at 800-491-5717 or 614-475-7551 and tell them you are with the CFHE meeting.   Rooms have been discounted at a rate of $119/night. There is free parking at the hotel. *Please do not wait to make your reservation, as the hotel is going to be sold out that weekend.* At this meeting, attendees will be discussing ways to:Foster community engagement and support for public higher educationProvide alternatives to the “new normal” of inadequate funding for higher educationDevelop effective strategies for improving funding for higher educationIdentify online education principles that provide meaningful access to quality higher educationRegistration fee for the conference is $50.  Checks should be made payable to “Ohio Conference AAUP” and mailed to Ohio Conference AAUP, 137 East State Street, Columbus, OH 43215.  The meeting registration deadline is May 1.  To register, please send an email with the subject “CFHE May Meeting Registration” to sara@ocaaup.org with the following information:Full name;email address;dates you plan to attend, and;organizational affiliation.We hope to see you in Columbus for another great CFHE meeting!

President McNay Delivers Testimony to Higher Education Subcommittee

Yesterday, Ohio Conference AAUP President John T. McNay testified on HB 59, the state budget bill, before the Ohio House Finance Higher Education Subcommittee.  Prof. McNay teaches history at the University of Cincinnati-Blue Ash.  He is the Past President of the University of Cincinnati-AAUP, and has served as Ohio Conference AAUP President since September 2012.  McNay’s testimony focused on three main areas: the new State Share of Instruction (SSI) formula, the faculty workload provision, and the problem of “administrative bloat” at Ohio’s public institutions. On the issue of the SSI formula, McNay noted that faculty were not consulted during development of this plan.  He also warned legislators that basing funding on outcomes, while not a bad idea on its face, could result in unintended consequences, such as grade inflation.  Speaking to the faculty workload provision, McNay stated, “To measure faculty purely based on the number of classes they teach would be like measuring legislators  based only on the time they spend in their legislative chamber – it would fail to take into account their committee work, constituent service, and all other responsibilities expected of legislators.” McNay pointed out that too much money is being spent on ever-growing university administrations; and instead of trying to impose arbitrary workload requirements on all full-time faculty, the focus should be on reining in administrative spending and investing in the hiring of more full-time faculty. The full testimony can be accessed by clicking here.   To see other testimony given to the subcommittee, click here. Representatives will be on “legislative spring break” the last week of March and first week of April.  A substitute budget bill, which will reflect changes made to the original bill, is expected to be released the week of April 8.

Annual Meeting Deadlines Approaching This is a reminder about the Ohio Conference’s Annual Meeting, which is Friday, April 12 and Saturday, April 13 at the Columbus Renaissance Downtown. The deadline to reserve a room for Friday evening at the reduced rate is Friday, March 22. Click here to be taken to a reservations webpage, which is unique to our meeting. The deadline to register is Monday, April 1.  You may access the registration form by clicking here. The agenda and all other information regarding the meeting can be found by clicking here. In addition to important items that will be voted upon during the business portion of the meeting, we have great speakers and presentations lined up. If you have any questions, please e-mail Executive Director Sara Kilpatrick at sara@ocaaup.org.    We hope that you will join us for this great event!

Budget Includes Faculty Workload Provisions

On Tuesday, Ohio House Bill 59, the state budget bill, was released in its entirety.  The bill includes policy that calls for increasing workload for full-time faculty at Ohio’s public colleges and universities.  Please note that if you are reading the full text of the bill, anything that is struck through indicates language that is eliminated and anything that is underlined indicates new language. Specifically, the bill revises Section 3345.45 of the Ohio Revised Code to contain the following provisions: 

(C)(1) The board of trustees or managing authority of each state institution of higher education, as defined in section 3345.011 of the Revised Code, may choose to modify its faculty workload policy adopted under division (B) of this section, or to adopt a faculty workload policy if it does not have one, to increase the instructional workload of each full-time research and instructional faculty member. The faculty workload policy, if adopted, shall require each faculty member, who was a full-time research or instructional faculty member during the 2012-2013 academic year, to teach at least one additional course during the 2013-2014 or 2014-2015 academic year from the number of courses that faculty member taught during the 2012-2013 academic year. Each academic year thereafter, each such faculty member shall maintain, at a minimum, the same instructional workload as during either the 2013-2014 or 2014-2015 academic year, whichever is greater.

(2) The faculty workload policy, if adopted, shall require each faculty member who was a full-time research or instructional faculty member during the 2012-2013 academic year but was on paid sabbatical leave provided for in the faculty member’s contract to teach at least one additional course during the 2013-2014 or 2014-2015 academic year from the number of courses that faculty member taught the last academic year during which the member was not on paid sabbatical leave. During each academic year thereafter, the faculty member shall maintain, at a minimum, the same instructional workload as during either the 2013-2014 or 2014-2015 academic year, whichever is greater. If the faculty member is on paid sabbatical leave during the 2013-2014 or 2014-2015 academic year, the requirements of this division shall take effect, if the faculty workload policy is adopted, the next academic year during which that faculty member is not on paid sabbatical leave.

(3) The faculty workload policy, if adopted, shall require faculty members hired for the first time by an institution of higher education during the 2013-2014 academic year, or hired for the first time in any academic year thereafter, to maintain a comparable instructional workload to that of other faculty members at the same institution whose workloads have increased as a result of this section.
 
By placing such measures in the state budget bill, the unspoken assumptions seem to be that faculty do not work hard enough, or that there will be cost-savings in making faculty teach more courses.

We see this happening at a time when full-time tenure track faculty are outnumbered by administrators by nearly two to one, and instructional salaries at Ohio’s colleges and universities account for a mere 15 to 20 percent of universities’ total budgets. [According to IPEDS data synthesized by Prof. Rudy Fichtenbaum, AAUP President and Economics Professor at Wright State University.]

The Ohio Conference AAUP is opposed to any measures imposed by the state that try to arbitrarily standardize faculty workload across institutions.  Workload issues should be decided at each individual campus, and should take into account the myriad of obligations of the professoriat, including research and student advising.

We will be partnering with like-minded organizations to have this language removed from the budget, and will continue to keep our members updated throughout the legislative process.

Register Now for OCAAUP Annual Meeting

The OCAAUP Annual Meeting will take place Friday, April 12 and Saturday, April 13 at the Columbus Renaissance Downtown, just steps away from the Statehouse in the heart of downtown Columbus.  

Benjamin Ginsberg, professor of political science at Johns Hopkins University and author of The Fall of the Faculty: The Rise of the All-Administrative University and Why It Matters, is scheduled to deliver the keynote speech. Ginsberg will address the issue of administrative bloat, as well as topics in American politics.
Additionally, there will be a presentation on student debt, a workshop for advocacy chapter members on finances at their institutions, as well as a workshop geared toward collective bargaining chapter members on using polling and focus groups to develop effective messaging during negotiations.

For more details, and to access the registration form and agenda, click here.

Gov. Kasich Unveils State Budget

On Monday, Gov. John Kasich unveiled his $63.3 billion two-year biennial budget for Ohio.  Below is a preliminary analysis based upon documents released by the Governor’s office. Slashing Revenue, Implementing the Affordable Care Act One of the biggest changes proposed in this budget is reducing the state income tax by $2.1 billion, a reduction that gradually will be phased in over the next three years.  This reduction disproportionately favors wealthier Ohioans and strips the state of much needed revenue. 

Additionally, Kasich’s budget includes a reduction of the state sales tax from 5.5 percent to 5 percent, but extends the tax to cover services and “other economic activity.” These tax cuts continue to be funded on the backs of local communities who saw the state’s Local Government Fund slashed in the last biennial budget.  Because of those cuts, we continue to see localities put levy after levy on their ballots as they struggle to maintain adequate safety forces and education funding. Separately, to the surprise of many, the Governor included Medicaid expansion in his budget.  

Approximately 366,000 Ohioans will now be covered by health insurance under this extension, a component of the Affordable Care Act, also known as “Obamacare.” Higher Education ComponentsIn terms of higher education funding, the proposed budget calls for slight increases each year – about 0.6 percent in Fiscal Year 2014 and about 2.3 percent in Fiscal Year 2015. However, this is less of an increase and more of a restoration of funds.  

In the Governor’s last budget, he cut higher education funding by nearly 11 percent in Fiscal Year2012, and added back in less than four percent in Fiscal Year 2013. The proposed budget also calls for continuing to restrain tuition and general fees for undergraduates to no more than the greater of two percent over what the institution charged in the previous academic year or two percent of the statewide average cost, by sector (which we believe means the four year institutions versus the two-year community colleges).  

As anticipated, the State Share of Instruction (SSI) formula is being changed from one based primarily on enrollment to one based primarily on course and degree completions. The Kasich administration is trying to “incentivize” colleges to improve their outcomes.  OCAAUP has concerns about what unintended consequences might accompany this plan, like pressure being placed on faculty to pass students, or administrators overriding faculty-given grades.  

We must not compromise quality of education and disguise it as student success. Over the last few weeks, rumors had surfaced that the budget might include policy to standardize and increase workload for full-time faculty, as Kasich had included such provisions in his last preliminary budget; however, there was no mention of faculty workload in what has been released so far. Again, this is a preliminary analysis based upon the material released by the Governor’s office yesterday.  

The state budget process lasts nearly five months, so there are pieces bound to shift as it undergoes the legislative process.  We will keep you updated throughout the process.