At 7 p.m. on Sunday, Nov. 12, a meeting was held between faculty committee chairs and Board of Trustee members to discuss a recent proposal by the board to cut four tenure-track faculty members to help reduce the college’s deficit.

According to Judith Lockyer, chair of the English department, the faculty found out about the plan Thursday, Nov. 9. A meeting of tenured professors was held on Sunday afternoon to discuss the situation and write a petition that clarified their position.

"We felt the cuts [of tenure-track positions] would do serious damage to our reputation as an academic institution," Lockyer said. "There would be damage to recruiting professors and students as well."

The cuts were also seen as a violation of the faculty handbook and a broken promise to faculty members who were offered the tenure-track positions with the implication of commitment from the college, said Gregory Saltzman, professor of economics and management and Budgets, Salaries, and Benefits Committee chair.

According to Saltzman, the handbook states that the only reason faculty members can be cut for the sake of the budget is if the college declares financial exigency.

However, Troy VanAken, executive vice president, stated that the board ran the decision by lawyers who felt that wasn’t the case.

"We didn’t overstep or do anything wrong," VanAken said. "But with the faculty being so upset, why would we do it? If it’s going to hurt morale so much, it’s going to make us think twice."

The participants in Sunday night’s meeting included Saltzman; VanAken; President Peter Mitchell; Royal Ward, vice-president of academic affairs; Ian MacInnes, professor of English and Faculty Steering Committee chair; Dean McCurdy, professor of biology and Curriculum and Resource Committee chair; Barbara Keyes, professor of psychology and Administrative Council representative; and Lisa Lewis, professor of chemistry and associate dean of the faculty. Those present came to the mutual decision to hold off on using faculty cuts as a solution to balancing the college’s budget.

Further plans and alternatives for cuts had yet to be discussed as of press time.

"The meeting was positive and collegial," MacInnes said in an e-mail response. "Many details remain to be discussed by faculty committees, however, and it is too soon to report any substantive decisions."

There will be a faculty meeting Thursday, Nov. 16 at noon to continue discussions on the budget. Lockyer stressed that the faculty is unified in shaping academic cuts. Although the matter has been put on hold for now, student reactions to the proposal are still strong.

"I think faculty and students alike on this matter were in agreement about academic integrity of the college," said Catherine Fontana, Dearborn junior and Student Senate president. "Students and faculty are feeling like the budget is the almighty concern and we’re compromising education in order to make a balanced budget, and that shouldn’t be the case."

VanAken stated that there is no doubt the Board of Trustees is passionate about the high quality of student experience.

According to VanAken, the current operating revenue of the college is around $45 million, the main sources being students’ tuition, donations, and a five percent spending formula on the college’s endowment, which is currently at $180 million. VanAken said last year’s operating deficit was $1,080,000, and this year the college is likely to have a balanced budget due to recent improvements in the college’s financial model.

The college has had an operating deficit since the 2000 fiscal year and the Board of Trustees have allowed the college to take more resources out of our endowment to balance the budget, said VanAken. However, he said, exceeding endowment spending for many years in a row is undesirable, and the college needs to find other ways to balance things fiscally.

"The endowment allows an institution like Albion to not get tossed and turned by short term financial trouble," VanAken said. "We can weather things and take a long term approach. We spend a little bit today so that 20 years from now students are still benefiting from it. We’ve been spending to support this generation currently at Albion, but we also need to keep in mind the next generations and it needs to be there for them."

Next year, the school will assume additional operating expenses of about $1.2 million. VanAken said that the largest piece of this is $850,000 in depreciation for the science complex. To help make up for these new expenses, VanAken and the administration have the goal of recruiting 525 first-year students, 45 more than this year’s 480. The extra students would increase the college’s enrollment closer to last year’s 1,950 students. Looking at enrollment a few years ahead, the college will need to recruit classes to replace the class of 2008 that came in with 559 students and the class of 2009 that came in with 571 students, an important thing to be noted, according to VanAken.

"We have built up our facilities and faculty/staff sizes to support the larger enrollment and if/when enrollment drops, then we probably are going to have to look at reducing our faculty/staff size according, not that anyone wants that," VanAken said in an e-mail response.

VanAken added that if this year’s first-year class had 525 students, then the administration would probably have less work to do on the financial model right now. The board realized the combination of a smaller enrollment and more expenses coming next year required decisions need to be made.

Fontana disagreed and stated that the college is going to face problems with getting more students to come here if the academics are no longer what they used to be.

"So you’re trying to attract that 1,950, but the problem is that even once you get them here, you’re cutting faculty, the class sizes go up; we’re not really built for 1,950," Fontana said. "We’ll get academic rigor decreasing and an overall degradation of the undergraduate experience. It’s also a question of what we’re willing to compromise, because I feel like students have already compromised a lot, including their academic semester."

Other students feel just as strongly about Sunday’s proposal. A Martini, Royal Oak senior, passed out fliers with the college’s administrative salaries (information open to the public) and their percentage increase since the 1998 fiscal year.

"My reason for doing this is because, for an institution that is supposed to be in financial trouble, our president has gotten several gigantic raises, and I would have no problem if the institution was in good shape," Martini said. "It’s not right that these people should get the ax for the administration’s poor management."

Jason Lindberg, Traverse City junior, said he is glad the proposal didn’t pass, but can see the administration’s side of the conflict too.

"I understand that certain sacrifices need to be made sometimes to keep the ship at sea," Lindberg said.

Fontana agrees sacrifices need to be made, but there are other factors that need to be looked into.

"We should be looking at any extravagant expenditures that we have as a college," Fontana said. "Salaries of the administration need to be considered, we need to be doing fund raising, and we need a reevaluation of what we find important."