While the Tennessee Board of Regents’ power is undeniable, its judgment about the future of higher education may be questionable.
The Faculty Senate met Tuesday afternoon, and a faculty committee reported briefly on the TBR “Defining Our Future” document’s impact on the quality of The University of Memphis and its overall efficiency.
The lengthy TBR report is the culmination of the suggestions of committees composed of education officials from across the state on how to “do more with less” in higher education, requested by the state legistlature last August.
Many argue that higher education just needs more money to keep up any kind of standard.
Chair of the faculty committee, David Ciscel said the first two times the committee met to review the TBR report, “we just got mad.”
Ciscel added the recommendations included the TBR document ranged “from the mundane to the terrifying,” and that there was little to increase efficiency mentioned in the document, just cutting costs.
“We are only looking at the current recommendations,” Ciscel said, “rather than the ‘outrageous’ long-term proposals,” such as a vast increase of adjunct faculty and a widespread deduction of tenured professors. “I could definitely sense a strong community college bias.”
Faculty Senate President Kenneth Lambert described the gap in understanding between the TBR and the Faculty Senate. “The TBR are good, honest, well-meaning people with power over us, but they don’t always understand what we do.”
Senate member Candy Justice, representing the Journalism Department, asked why the U of M approved the document, if the faculty and administration were not in agreement with it.
Lambert said the TBR “town hall” meetings held recently were less of an open discussion and more of a “here’s what we are going to do” plan.
Lambert gave the example of the common calendar initiative that was passed and said The U of M was told not to worry about the initiative because it wouldn’t be on the docket for quite some time.
“The next meeting it was on the docket, and there was no time to talk about it,” Lambert said.
The faculty committee on the “Defining Our Future” document will be reporting further at the next Senate meeting Feb. 19. Until then, Lambert urged the Senate members to read through the TBR report.
“We want to maintain the integrity of the institution,” Lambert said.
Charles Schulz, parliamentarian and senator from the Music Department, expressed the hope that when all the initiatives save $15 million, and the state realizes we still need $300 million more, action will be taken to solve the budget problems.
At the same meeting, the Senate passed a draft resolution to support the legislative rally to be held in Nashville Jan. 26, asking for increased state funding, adding it “depends upon meaningful tax reform at the state level.” Various Tennessee colleges and universities are to participate.
Lambert assured the Senate that the rally would be held “without horn-honking or a lot of marching on the capitol or anything crazy.”
