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.

Ginsberg to Give Keynote Speech 
at OCAAUP Annual Meeting;

OCAAUP Will Host CFHE Meeting
Happy New Year!  Please mark your calendars for two important events taking place in Columbus this year. The OCAAUP Annual Meeting will take place April 12-13 at the Columbus Renaissance Downtown.  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 and topics in American politics.
Additionally, OCAAP is serving as the host for the Campaign for the Future of Higher Education’s Midwest meeting. This meeting will be held at the Columbus Airport Marriott May 17-19.The Campaign for the Future of Higher Education – CFHE for short – is a new grassroots national campaign to support quality higher education.  It was initiated in Los Angeles, California on January 21, 2011 by leaders of faculty organizations from 21 states.  More information on the organization can be found here: http://futureofhighered.org/.   Because the hotels we are utilizing for these events will be very busy during these times, we highly encourage our members to make reservations as soon as possible, certainly by the block rate deadlines.  More information about both events can be found here: https://ocaaup.org/events.aspx.

Reminder: January 20 is the Deadline  for OCAAUP Election Nominations                     To Our AAUP Colleagues in the Ohio Conference: With this notice to members and chapter officers, the OCAAUP Nominations Committee is calling for nominations for five (5) Ohio Conference Board positions. Nominations should be e-mailed to sara@ocaaup.org.  Please be advised that you may receive an additional notice from National AAUP.  To help ensure we have a robust slate of candidates, please circulate this notice to your best and brightest who might be looking for an opportunity to serve the state conference. The Executive Board positions to be elected in 2013 are: Vice PresidentTreasurerAt-Large Member – Public InstitutionsAt-Large Member – Public or Private Chair of Committee on Private InstitutionsThe terms of office for each position are noted in the footnote section of this e-mail.  The expectations of the Board Member elected as Vice President include serving as a delegate to the National AAUP Annual Meeting and the Assembly of State Conferences (ASC) Annual Meeting. The Board member elected as Treasurer also serves as a delegate to the ASC Meeting. Nominations must be received by Sara Kilpatrick, Executive Director of the Ohio Conference AAUP, via email at sara@ocaaup.org no later than January 20, 2013.   Additionally, candidates must accept nomination by submitting a written acceptance, which is due at the same time as the nomination (see the form at the very bottom of this message).  Any AAUP member from Ohio who is in good standing is eligible to nominate candidates and/or run for office. After the close of nominations, ballots shall be sent via mail or e-mail to Conference members in good standing by March 15. Completed ballots must be returned by mail or electronically no later than April 15.  Write-in votes shall not be permitted. Results shall be announced no later than May 15.    Footnotes: Per the Ohio Conference Code of Regulations: “The voting members of the Board of Trustees of the Ohio Conference shall be the President, the Vice-President, the Secretary, the Treasurer, the immediate past President, any member from the State of Ohio then serving on the AAUP National Council or Executive Committee, an At-Large Member from a Private Institution, an At-Large Member from a Public Institution, an At-Large Member from either Private or Public Institution, and the Chairs of the Committees on Organizing, Private Institutions, and Two Year Institutions.   All voting positions on the Board of Trustees shall be elected.   The Chairs of the Committees on Academic Freedom and Tenure and Government Relations shall be non-voting, ex-officio members of the Board of Trustees.  They shall be appointed by the President with the approval of the Trustees. All voting Board of Trustees positions, except for National Council or National Executive Committee members and immediate past President, shall be elected for two-year terms.   For purposes of serving terms of office on the Board of Trustees, the year shall run from September 1 through August 31. Trustees who are National Council members or members of the National Executive Committee shall serve on the Board of Trustees as long as they hold their National positions. The immediate past President shall continue to serve on the Board for one year past the end of his/her term as President.  The Chairs of the Committees on Academic Freedom and Tenure and Government Relations shall serve at the will of the President and the Trustees.”  __________________________________________ Consent Form CONSENT TO STAND FOR OCAAUP EXECUTIVE BOARD ELECTIONS  I, ___(your name)___, from __(your institution)___, confirm that I am a member of the AAUP in good standing, and I am willing to stand for election to the office of __(the office you are seeking)__ of the Ohio State Conference AAUP. ____________           ___________         ___________  Printed Name              Signature                     Date