The Administration's Impact on Faculty Retention & Recruitment
July 24, 2017
Concerning your note on Friday to unit members, I want to strongly affirm your view that many of the administration's proposals will have a negative impact on faculty retention and the recruitment of top-notch new faculty - the latter the university has sought for decades and Rider is better for it.
I'm sure the hired lawyer and chief negotiator for the administration has never attended the premier annual conferences for academics as we have and attempted to recruit new faculty. From experience, factors that have led to recruitment success in these venues for many at Rider are targets of reduction or elimination. These are:
These have made a difference in my experience and it's important to point out that even with these employment features we have lost out to other universities that offered more than we could.
If the administration is successful in its race to the bottom it will probably be able to staff classrooms, but the important question for all - including Rider's Board - is, with whom? Everyone has their price. Would the board members tolerate this diminishment of personnel in their own organizations; would this be consistent with their organizations' missions and stated values?
The administration should be made aware that the outcry from new and current students, their parents, alums, faculty, past and prospective donors, and others would be great indeed. An outcry (and very bad press) is highly predictable.
St. Joseph's
St. Joseph's University has just received a $50 million donation, the largest in its history, from a couple who has been very generous to the university in the past. The document below carries that story but its last paragraph reproduced here is something you should see as it reveals a university doing well in times Rider's president calls "challenging". Note also the size of St. Joseph's endowment - almost triple Rider's. St Joseph's does a lot of marketing in the Greater Philadelphia area.
"With the university anticipating 'a healthy operating surplus' in its $320 million budget, a stronger incoming freshman class academically and an endowment that has grown to $235 million...."
Rider's competitors
From the colleges that the administration lists as its competitors it is clear that it still sees Rider as a New Jersey university, not really a regional one, which it could be. There's new blood and a competitive spirit needed in Enrollment (and elsewhere, including the top) to turn the institution around. Drexel's president John Fry is one model. Drexel like St. Joe's heavily markets itself in the region. When CBA departments were asked by then Dean Larry Newman to compare their offerings with other universities we didn't limit ourselves to NJ schools, and our departments turned out to be superior.
Jerry
Gerald D. Klein, Ph.D.
Professor of Organizational Behavior and Management Emeritus
Department of Management
Rider University
July 24, 2017
Concerning your note on Friday to unit members, I want to strongly affirm your view that many of the administration's proposals will have a negative impact on faculty retention and the recruitment of top-notch new faculty - the latter the university has sought for decades and Rider is better for it.
I'm sure the hired lawyer and chief negotiator for the administration has never attended the premier annual conferences for academics as we have and attempted to recruit new faculty. From experience, factors that have led to recruitment success in these venues for many at Rider are targets of reduction or elimination. These are:
- competitive starting salaries;
- a teaching load that permits research;
- cost-of-living increases, at least in the past;
- guaranteed reimbursement for at least some travel;
- a good number of opportunities to obtain research and development support;
- the tuition remission and benesave benefits and a a good contribution to pension;
- a health plan without a co-pay - reasonable as a family is not covered by the university;
- a P&T process that is more transparent and objective than others from beginning to end;
- the ability of faculty to influence academic decision making;
- the opportunity to join perhaps the strongest and most successful faculty union in the country that fights for its members;
- and, in our department, egalitarianism in decision making and course assignment.
These have made a difference in my experience and it's important to point out that even with these employment features we have lost out to other universities that offered more than we could.
If the administration is successful in its race to the bottom it will probably be able to staff classrooms, but the important question for all - including Rider's Board - is, with whom? Everyone has their price. Would the board members tolerate this diminishment of personnel in their own organizations; would this be consistent with their organizations' missions and stated values?
The administration should be made aware that the outcry from new and current students, their parents, alums, faculty, past and prospective donors, and others would be great indeed. An outcry (and very bad press) is highly predictable.
St. Joseph's
St. Joseph's University has just received a $50 million donation, the largest in its history, from a couple who has been very generous to the university in the past. The document below carries that story but its last paragraph reproduced here is something you should see as it reveals a university doing well in times Rider's president calls "challenging". Note also the size of St. Joseph's endowment - almost triple Rider's. St Joseph's does a lot of marketing in the Greater Philadelphia area.
"With the university anticipating 'a healthy operating surplus' in its $320 million budget, a stronger incoming freshman class academically and an endowment that has grown to $235 million...."
Rider's competitors
From the colleges that the administration lists as its competitors it is clear that it still sees Rider as a New Jersey university, not really a regional one, which it could be. There's new blood and a competitive spirit needed in Enrollment (and elsewhere, including the top) to turn the institution around. Drexel's president John Fry is one model. Drexel like St. Joe's heavily markets itself in the region. When CBA departments were asked by then Dean Larry Newman to compare their offerings with other universities we didn't limit ourselves to NJ schools, and our departments turned out to be superior.
Jerry
Gerald D. Klein, Ph.D.
Professor of Organizational Behavior and Management Emeritus
Department of Management
Rider University