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Moffitt tries to explain UO’s excessive reserves to OUS

6/27/2013: From the minutes of the 5/24 OUS F&A meeting:

Projected campus fund balances for biennial-end include: EOU, 5.1%; OIT, 12.4%; OSU, 8.4%;
PSU, 14.2%; SOU, 7.4%; UO, 17.%; WOU, 16.6%; and Chancellor’s Office, 20.7%. Vice President
Moffitt, UO, advised that they are preparing a written plan for submission to the Board
concerning their fund balance exceeding the Board policy maximum. She advised that this
increase is due to the continued delays in hiring tenure-track faculty necessary to support the
increased enrollment and related expenditures for the support of new hires. Management
projects the fund balance will decrease at the end of Fiscal Year 2014 with the anticipated new
hires and related PERS increases. She advised that 42 letters of offer were extended with 30
acceptances; with the retiring and resigning of current faculty, the net will not be 42 but
anticipate a net of approximately 15 new faculty hires. Interim Chancellor Rose requested that
a report on current recruitment efforts and expected outcomes be included in the written plan
submitted to the Board. 

10 Comments

  1. Anonymous 06/28/2013

    Dog to UOMatters

    Good information – thanks
    30/42 acceptances seems pretty normal
    to me. But if we want go grow our faculty
    with this % acceptance and the retirement bulge
    I estimate we need to hire at least 50 new faculty per year and I doubt we will gear up
    to that level

  2. Anonymous 06/28/2013

    She’s going to spend those reserves on new administrators, strategic communicators, consultants, and cops.

  3. Oryx 06/28/2013

    What? At least in the science departments I’m aware of, we’re not being allowed to expand faculty hiring, despite the massive increase in student numbers. Even if we were, Dog is right that the rate of successful searches isn’t 100%, so we’d really have to ramp up our hiring, starting last year. I don’t see it. Is there any reason to believe that there will be some this influx of “anticipated new hires” “at the end of Fiscal Year 2014”?

    • Anonymous 06/28/2013

      I know. There is all this hand-wringing about how to boost key metrics (funding levels, grad students) to stay in the AAU. How about letting science departments hire for existing lines?

  4. Anonymous 06/28/2013

    This is the latest in a series of stories about how they are going to use reserves/tuition revenue – none of which are consistent. Two interpretations – they are clueless or they don’t want you to know the real plan.

  5. Anonymous 06/28/2013

    Dog says

    why is there an “or” in the statement above?

    • Anonymous 06/29/2013

      Exactly!

      My impression is that, quite frankly, there is no one in JH actually steering this ship. Let’s hope when Capt. Coltrane comes on board, he’ll have some idea where we’re going, set a clear course, and let us all know what it is. But I’m not holding my breath.

  6. Anonymous 06/29/2013

    They’re building up the reserves to give the executive admin types big fat raises after the collective bargaining agreement is approved, giving peanuts to the faculty.

  7. Anonymous 06/29/2013

    Boosting faculty salaries, start-up funding and support would certainly help recruiting new faculty, especially in the sciences. But the JH folks probably haven’t figured that out.

  8. Anonymous 06/30/2013

    They have it figured out and they are busy padding their pay.

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