Marquette Faces Pushback on Faculty Cuts

[warriorchick]

39 more positions eliminated today.

For reference, that is about 1.3% of total employees. 

[GooooMarquette]

Exactly.  In both the Nursing and PA programs, Marquette is forced to turn away highly qualified applicants because they simply don't have room for them. 

One of the big issues in the shortage of high-level healthcare workers is that there aren't enough available spots in school for everyone who is both qualified and interested in pursuing these careers.

Yep. Every high-quality school that has a good nursing and/or PA program should expand if they can. These are some of the careers of the future, and a noble career path.

I have said it before and I will say it again. Frontline workers like your daughter are the heroes of 2020 (and now 2021).

[warriorchick]

Yep. Every high-quality school that has a good nursing and/or PA program should expand if they can. These are some of the careers of the future, and a noble career path.

I have said it before and I will say it again. Frontline workers like your daughter are the heroes of 2020 (and now 2021).

Thanks. We are super proud of her. She is still shaking off the effects of Covid. She is having some chest pain so her doctor prescribed her some prednisone.

[dgies9156]

I always thought MU could pull off a great fundraiser doing something similar with various buildings that alumni have bad memories of. I'd donate to push the button on Lalumiere.

No way! That’s where I met my wife. In Spanish class between glances of the Wall Street Journal.

A few years back, we took our children to my wife’s reunion with us and as we walked around campus, we took them to the place where we met at Lalumiere many, many years ago. It is a sacred place!

[mu_hilltopper]

Interesting ..

https://marquetteaaup.wordpress.com/2021/02/17/a-new-beginning-in-shared-governance-at-marquette-university/

-240 sections?  That's a huge number.

[TAMU, Knower of Ball]

Those that thought that the 39 layoffs was the last of staffing cuts at Marquette were mistaken. Just getting started.

[The Hippie Satan of Hyperbole]

Interesting ..

https://marquetteaaup.wordpress.com/2021/02/17/a-new-beginning-in-shared-governance-at-marquette-university/

-240 sections?  That's a huge number.

It's probably somewhere between 5-10% if I have my numbers right. 

But this line from Marquette AAUP article makes no sense to me:  "We strongly urge each and every faculty member, whether or not an AAUP member, to reach out to senior University leadership right now to object to such NTT staff reductions until there has been a full explanation as to why such actions need to be taken now, when the dollars necessary to avoid this action will be available."

I don't think the AAUP understands that this isn't just a one year blip.  Marquette has had a couple bad freshman year classes in a row, and those classes stick with you for four years.  You can't use one time Covid Relief funds to keep NTT staff employed when you simply don't have the classes for them to teach.

[mu_hilltopper]

It's probably somewhere between 5-10% if I have my numbers right. 

I'm confused .. if 240 was 10% of all sections .. that means MU has 2400 classes going on per semester.   That seems high?

[cheebs09]

Is this 240 classes or 240 class slots?

For instance, THEO 1000 could have 5 different slots with different professors/times. Would that count as 1 or 5?

[forgetful]

Is this 240 classes or 240 class slots?

For instance, THEO 1000 could have 5 different slots with different professors/times. Would that count as 1 or 5?

Sections. So for instance, if they have a required 1st year writing course that all incoming students need to take. If they want all the 1647 students in classes of 15 or less, then they need 110 sections just for this class. These types of courses are usually taught by non-tenure track faculty.

So if they instead set a class size target at under 24 per class, they only need 69 sections and can cut 41 sections for this class alone.

These required 1st year curriculum courses, that have very high numbers of sections being surfaced by non-tenure track faculty are likely what is being targeted.

[mu_hilltopper]

https://urbanmilwaukee.com/2021/03/01/higher-education-will-mu-become-marquette-tech/

Hmm.   

[The Hippie Satan of Hyperbole]

Emphasizing STEM, nursing and business makes sense. Doing so while continuing to offer a liberal arts background in the Catholic and Jesuit tradition can be a huge market differentiator. People with those skills is exactly what the marketplace wants.

And no Marquette won’t be junking their liberal arts majors.  But my guess is that they won’t have the same numbers as before. And that’s fine.

[TallTitan34]

"The Marquette community is beginning to believe the justifications for budget cuts just don’t add up. Marquette will run a budget surplus next year, perhaps greater than the proposed cuts."

[The Hippie Satan of Hyperbole]

"The Marquette community is beginning to believe the justifications for budget cuts just don’t add up. Marquette will run a budget surplus next year, perhaps greater than the proposed cuts."

While that literally might be true, there are a lot of aspects to college finance that are being overlooked here.  Just because you are running a surplus, that doesn't mean that you can use the surplus to fund operating costs or that running a short term surplus doesn't mean making cuts for the sake of the long term.

For example, Marquette is currently running a fundraising campaign for a business building.  Many of those pledges, even if they aren't paid immediately, are counted as revenue in the year they are pledged.  But that revenue isn't always realized, and even if it is, must be used for the building.

Also, there are a number of colleges that rather unexpectedly are going to run surpluses this year.  Why?  First, CARES Act allocations have covered a bunch of Covid related costs.  Second, because expenses are way down.  But if you are going to ramp back up to a "normal" operation, those expenses could grow right back without the revenue to cover them.

[TallTitan34]

I'd also like to see some numbers to back that statement up rather than just a throw away line.

EDIT:  I'm talking about the article.  Not you FBM.

[The Hippie Satan of Hyperbole]

That's not even the worst one....

"There are rumors,” said one professor who wished not to be identified, “that the Jesuit community was told by the provost [Kimo Ah Yun] and the president [] a couple of years ago that they want to turn Marquette into the first Jesuit technical university, to retreat from their liberal arts focus, to focus on things like healthcare and the STEM fields… They had a lot of resistance on the part of the Jesuit community to their plans to cut liberal arts programs.”

Again, these are only rumors..."


I have worked in higher education for thirty years, and there are two indisputable facts.

First, there are always "rumors" amongst the faculty.

Second, those "rumors" are either flat out wrong, or are missing significant facts.

Third, they are always reported by someone else.  Either someone heard something or it gets reported anonymously.

[warriorchick]

"The Marquette community is beginning to believe the justifications for budget cuts just don’t add up. Marquette will run a budget surplus next year, perhaps greater than the proposed cuts."

That's one of the big fallacies in the NFP world:  Just because there is money available doesn't mean it should be spent on whatever your pet project is.  The cuts were made because it was decided that the university didn't need those positions.  Having cash doesn't absolve you from making sure you don't waste it.

[mu_hilltopper]

https://twitter.com/MarquetteUnion/status/1369304045844840452

Last night, the firings of our Non-Tenure Track members and colleagues began. We stand firmly against this and demand that @marquetteu  and  @PresLovell  halt the firings immediately.

[cheebs09]

https://twitter.com/MarquetteUnion/status/1369304045844840452

Last night, the firings of our Non-Tenure Track members and colleagues began. We stand firmly against this and demand that @marquetteu  and  @PresLovell  halt the firings immediately.

Is it firings or non-renewal of contracts?

Classes are in session now, so it wouldn’t be immediate right?

[The Hippie Satan of Hyperbole]

It's for next year.

Reading the Twitter thread, they are moving people from VAP (Visiting Assistant Professor) to a "per class" part time.  A VAP would be a non-tenure track (NTT) faculty member with a full time teaching load.  They are moving off those contracts and into a set compensation "per class" that may not add up to a full-time job with benefits. 

The tweets use words like "shameless," and of course it sucks, but this is what Marquette has to do when it is facing less students.  They are using the flexibility created with a flexible work force.  Hardly unique to Marquette.

BTW, my understanding is next year's first year class isn't looking all that good either.

[MU Fan in Connecticut]

BTW, my understanding is next year's first year class isn't looking all that good either.

Fluff, does that mean the deposits are not really rolling in yet?

My younger daughter is down to Vermont, Xavier & Marquette.  She probably would have the deposit into Vermont already, but we advised her to wait and she has been seriously reconsidering.  Two weeks ago Vermont & Marquette would have been the same net cost, but Vermont actually just surprisingly added another award that makes it much more attractive cost-wise.  Marquette sent her to a link to be reconsidered, but noted only 2% get any increase.  Marquette's high Nursing School ranking is keeping them in the running plus that her cousin (my niece) is there.  Xavier is equal to Vermont ranking wise and would be way way less expensive plus her sister is there. 
 

[warriorchick]

Fluff, does that mean the deposits are not really rolling in yet?

My younger daughter is down to Vermont, Xavier & Marquette.  She probably would have the deposit into Vermont already, but we advised her to wait and she has been seriously reconsidering.  Two weeks ago Vermont & Marquette would have been the same net cost, but Vermont actually just surprisingly added another award that makes it much more attractive cost-wise.  Marquette sent her to a link to be reconsidered, but noted only 2% get any increase.  Marquette's high Nursing School ranking is keeping them in the running plus that her cousin (my niece) is there.  Xavier is equal to Vermont ranking wise and would be way way less expensive plus her sister is there.

Unfortunately, Marquette's nursing program is so competitive that MU doesn't have much of an incentive to increase financial aid.  They can probably just admit someone off of their waiting list.

[MU Fan in Connecticut]

Unfortunately, Marquette's nursing program is so competitive that MU doesn't have much of an incentive to increase financial aid.  They can probably just admit someone off of their waiting list.

I don't doubt this.  I'm sure there are other great student's waiting for an opening.

What's weird is that daughter #2's offer was about 15% higher than daughter #1's two years ago.  If daughter #1 got the same offer she would probably be at Marquette right now.

[The Hippie Satan of Hyperbole]

My understanding is that applications and admits are up...but deposits are down.

(Applications and admits are up at a lot of places by the way.  Kids are bored and apparently biding their time applying to more schools.)

[Billy Hoyle]

My understanding is that applications and admits are up...but deposits are down.

(Applications and admits are up at a lot of places by the way.  Kids are bored and apparently biding their time applying to more schools.)

the Common App helps that too.

With a lot of schools, I think we'll see higher acceptance rates.