|
|||||
 | |||||
|
Marketing and University Communication UW-Green Bay, CL 815 2420 Nicolet Drive Green Bay, WI 54311-7001 (920) 465-2626 E-mail: hildebrs@uwgb.edu Last update: 10/3/07 |
|
|
In
the News Archive - Year:
April 19, 1999 Retirements to change face of UWGB, other schools By Scott Hildebrand
During the next three decades, he and a core of faculty members helped shape UWGB's unique academic program and guide the higher education of thousands of students from Northeastern Wisconsin and elsewhere.
But Sager and many of his colleagues who have been at UWGB since the start have reached retirement age and are preparing to make way for a new generation of faculty.
"It's a major turnover," he said. "It's unfortunate it has to be that way. But a large portion of the faculty came at the same time."
Campuses throughout the UW System face a similar situation. Nearly 40 percent of UW faculty likely will retire during the next decade, according to a recent study.
The study found that the "graying" of the UW faculty has been accompanied by a decline in the number of younger faculty due to budget cuts. Cuts in the 1995-97 budget period eliminated 550 positions statewide.
The high number of retirements is expected to have a major impact in the system as younger faculty replace older, more-experienced professors. Some academic areas may face faculty shortages.
But faculty turnover could have a greater impact at UWGB than at any of the 12 other four-year schools in the system.
That's because UWGB is the youngest campus in the UW System and will lose faculty members who have been at the school since its inception. They played an important role in developing the university's unique program, which stresses a problem-focused, interdisciplinary approach to education.
"We have extraordinary professors retiring," UWGB chancellor Mark Perkins said. "They're people who are pioneers in the area of interdisciplinary education."
About 12 to 13 faculty retirements are expected at UWGB this year, compared with three or four during a typical year over the past decade. Four faculty members in one academic program, natural and applied sciences, are retiring this year.
The new faculty coming in may not be as appreciative as the departing professors of just how innovative the university and its faculty have been, Sager said.
"When you spend as much time building a curriculum as we have, you have a higher sense of ownership and responsibility with the curriculum," he said.
Sager, a professor of natural and applied sciences, is chairman of the biology program and director of the Cofrin Arboretum.
He hopes the university recruits people who primarily are interested in teaching.
"What we need to have are people with a strong interest in teaching and working with students," he said. "It's a very noble profession. We think of ourselves as teacher-scholars."
Carol Pollis, UWGB dean of liberal arts and sciences, sees challenges and opportunities in replacing veteran faculty members.
"Many of these people have been important in building this school and giving it its distinctive academic philosophy," she said. "They've been so influential throughout their 25- or 30-year careers."
But Pollis said new interests and ideas can energize a university.
She also said big turnover could create opportunities for increasing the proportion of women and minorities in faculty positions.
"It's so important that the composition of the faculty reflects changes in society and changes in the demographics of the community," she said.
Women now make up about 30 percent of UWGB's faculty. About 11.5 percent of the faculty are minorities.
Another challenge is to have a faculty pay plan that enables UWGB and other system schools to compete nationally for high-quality faculty, Perkins said.
He said faculty pay at the system's comprehensive universities — the four-year schools other than UW-Madison and UW-Milwaukee — ranks 22nd of 32 schools used for salary comparisons.
"At a time when we're going to experience turnover, we're in a very difficult position with regard to pay plan," he said.
Perkins said a proposed 5.2 percent faculty pay increase is a "vital" step toward closing the pay gap between UW schools and their peers in other states.
| |
