SIU makes plans to hire more faculty

CARBONDALE, Ill. -- Southern Illinois University at Carbondale plans to hire 28 new professors by the start of the fall 2003 semester even as it struggles with $10 million in budget cuts.

"We are looking to the future," said Kyle Perkins, SIU's interim provost and vice chancellor. "We are making these hires with a view to trying to get SIU-Carbondale to be included in the top 75 research universities by 2019."

Perkins said adding faculty will boost the number of tenured and tenure-track faculty, lower faculty-student ratios slightly, increase faculty diversity, and lead to more grant-funded research.

The announcement comes at a time when another school in the region -- Southeast Missouri State University -- faces the possibility of cutting faculty jobs and academic programs should state budget woes continue in Missouri.

Southeast has 405 full-time faculty, up five from a year ago. But Provost Jane Stephens, Southeast's chief academic officer, said any additions next year -- assuming no further budget cuts -- would only occur by replacing retiring full professors with faculty coming in at lesser rank and lower pay.

SIU, however, plans to hire 12 senior or full professors and 16 tenure-track assistant professors in areas ranging from wildlife research to engineering. Perkins said that in his 27-year tenure at SIU, he only remembers one year in which the university recruited more than one senior professor in a single academic season.

John Koropchak, vice chancellor for research, said the plan matches faculty positions with areas where grant money will be most plentiful.

"Many of the hires will be in areas that have robust research and grant programs that are competitive for funding from agencies such as the National Science Foundation and the National Institutes of Health whose budgets are in the process of being doubled by Congress," he said.

Research status

Koropchak said hiring senior faculty with research track records will enhance the academic reputation of the university.

The university hiring plan relies on $2 million from next year's tuition revenue, school officials said.

The school already has announced it will raise undergraduate tuition by nearly $600 next academic year, pushing in-state tuition to $4,245. Counting other student fees, the total price tag will amount to more than $5,500 a year for a student taking 30 credit hours of classes.

Perkins said the university, whose operating budget exceeds $423 million, isn't looking to retrench. "We are not going to roll over and play dead," he said.

The university, he said, must look beyond today's tight economic times. "In this business, one has to assume there will be life after fiscal '03, '04 and '05," Perkins said.

School officials have embraced the plan to hire more faculty even though they had to cut 32 maintenance jobs within the last year.

The university's graduate and undergraduate enrollment of 21,872 -- up 275 from a year ago -- is more than double the number of students enrolled at Southeast Missouri State University.

SIU currently has 1,371 full-time faculty.

mbliss@semissourian.com

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