Plan Calls for More Faculty, Different Mix

The NMU Board of Trustees on Friday reviewed a proposed action plan that would reduce faculty productivity, which is highest among state universities, by adding 60 full-time equivalent teaching positions over the next three to five years. The target would be achieved through a combination of budget reallocations and an “appropriate mix” of tenured/tenure-earning faculty (T/TEF) and non-tenured faculty (NTF).

During a focus discussion, Terry Seethoff (College of Arts and Sciences, pictured) said NMU faculty compensation is slightly below the state average. But both instructional costs and productivity – measured by the number of fiscal-year equated students per full-time equivalent teaching faculty – are high because the faculty mix is 74 percent T/TEF and 26 percent NTF. Seethoff said the state average is 58 percent and 42 percent, respectively.

“The bottom line is that Northern relies on full-time faculty to a greater extent than other schools and this mix is governing the overall cost,” Seethoff said. “My long history with this school leads me to believe we have room for adjustment that won’t adversely impact the quality of instruction. It’s something we would need to approach carefully and deliberately. But we need more hands on the oars if we plan to press forward with internationalization, the Superior Edge and other things we value. The faculty is feeling stretched. The difficult question is, ‘What is the optimum mix?’ It might be different at NMU than at other schools. Quality will be the benchmark.”

To illustrate the effect of faculty mix on instructional costs, Seethoff asked the board to consider three universities, each with 100 full-time equated faculty and equal compensation packages for T/TEF and NTF. With the mix of teaching faculty the only distinguishing feature, the unit cost for instruction would vary as follows:

Seethoff identified several ways that the mix could be altered to drive down instructional costs: expand graduate program offerings, which will increase the availability of teaching assistants; attract post-docs who have trained at the doctorate level and would teach at NMU for a limited period of time; and rely more on term faculty and adjuncts.

“Northern’s enrollment is very much influenced by basic demographics, so we also need to be mindful of what’s happening in that arena as we move forward,” he added. “The forecast is that we would expect a potential peak in enrollment in 2010, then a tapering off as the freshman class declines. The Upper Peninsula anticipates a larger decline than the state as a whole. Now, we’re working awfully hard to stop that from coming true, but we can’t discount the projections.”

In other action at its Feb. 23 meeting, the NMU Board of Trustees:

● Approved the following 2006-07 rates for the new student apartment complex being constructed on Wright Street: $4,218 per student for quad-occupancy, four-bedroom units; $4,984 for either a single-occupancy efficiency or double-occupancy, two-bedroom apartment; and $5,984 for a single-occupancy, one-bedroom unit.

● Agreed to add two academic programs – a graduate certificate in criminal justice management and a 150-hour program in accounting/corporate finance – and discontinue the associate of applied science degree in corrections. All changes will take effect in fall 2006.

● Received an update from President Les Wong on the search for a new provost. The search committee will begin the screening process after Feb. 24 and is expected to identify a list of semifinalists by mid-March. From there, finalists will be determined and brought to campus for interviews in late April or early May. The committee will make its final recommendation to Wong, with the goal of having a new provost on board by July 1.

● Accepted nearly $260,000 in external grants and $2,000 in gifts.

● Agreed to sell a small parcel of land to the City of Marquette for $1 to facilitate the planned extension of Wright Street to Lakeshore Boulevard. The parcel is a portion of railroad right of way that crosses the proposed extension area.

● Granted trustee emeritus status to Mary L. Campbell of Ann Arbor and Scott L. Holman of Freeland. Both served on the board from 1997 to 2004.

● Granted professor emeritus status to Carol Hicks (Engineering and Technology) and Jane Jamsen (Mathematics).