News for COHE Members
Non-contract Items
October 4, 2011
In This Issue
120 CREDITS!
This just in, BOR is top-heavy ...
More Words from a Fat Old Man?
Greetings!

Thank you for your continued membership and activism on behalf of higher education!  This newsletter contains a few quick facts.

First, a call to action as the BOR speeds towards reducing the number of credit hours required to graduate.  Why are they watering down our degrees?  Second, some facts to document the growth of BOR administration.  Finally, you can watch my first TV appearance on SDPB online.

Your brother in defense of faculty rights,
Gary Aguiar
 
120 Credits Finally Arrives!
120!

 

As many of us have feared, it appears the Board of Regents will vote at their October meeting to reduce the graduation requirements for nearly all majors to 120 credits from the current 128.  

 

I urge you to write to Executive Director Jack Warner and ask him how this improves higher education.   How does less education enhance the rigor of the degrees we grant?    

 

Our students need more education, not less!  These additional eight electives provide students with the opportunity to get experience in additional fields that broadens their knowledge.  It makes them better citizens and more employable. 

 

The BOR staff will argue that all of the surrounding states have moved in this direction and nearly every state has adopted it.  As my mother used to say, "just because everyone else jumps off the bridge, doesn't mean you have to."   

 

This could be our opportunity to distinguish ourselves further from our neighbors.  We can say, "Everyone else watered down their rigor, South Dakota has maintained ours!"  How often do we appear first on a list of the states? 

 

Yes, this change will make graduation cheaper for individual students (and they might get done quicker), but it reduces revenue available to the universities.   Well, you know, you get what you pay for. 

 

Don't the Regents understand that we have fixed costs based on headcounts, not credits earned?  So, we will be asked yet again to do more with less, perhaps $3.1 million next year at SDSU alone.  

 

Finally, why is this decision being made without faculty input.  The Board of Regents keep telling us that they value our expertise.  Yet, the first indication of this proposal came up at the public forum in their August meeting in Spearfish.  Now, we hear, it is on the agenda!   

 

Ask the Regents to give faculty a chance to make our recommendations.  Why the rush to decide?   Email Jack Warner at [email protected].

 

 

SOUTH DAKOTA'S PUBLIC UNIVERSITIES HAVE BECOME EVEN MORE TOP-HEAVY SINCE 2001 ... 

The facts confirm our suspicions.  No matter how you look at it, our system is top-heavy.  Administration, both at the BOR-level and on the campuses, has grown faster than the faculty!
Table 1 - Top Heavy


 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Notes: 

 

*Includes BOR Pierre office, Shared Payroll, Electronic University Consortium, Common Admissions  

**Labeled as "instructional administrators" in BOR Fact Book, as opposed to "non-instructional administrators."  

***During this same period, total student enrollment, by headcount, on all campuses increased 120% (from 27,560 to 32,943).

 

Source: SD BOR Fact Books (2001, pp. 35-36; 2009, pp. 37-38)

 

Besides their overall personnel expenditures, the actual number of administrators has grown faster than the number of faculty members. 

 

FTE
Notes and Source: See above


Percent FTE
Notes and Source: See above


... AND AN INCREASING PERCENT OF HIGHER EDUCATION DOLLARS ARE EXPENDED ON NON-CORE FUNCTIONS

 

percent budget

*Teaching, research, and service functions.

Source:  See above.

 

FAT OLD MAN ON TV?
Gary Aguiar

 

Gary Aguiar, in his role as a member of the Board of Directors of the SD State Employees Organization, appeared on public television's "SD Focus" last week.

If you are interested, here is the link.  (My comments are at these approximate marks: 9:00, 19:00, 45:00, 49:00, and 53:00.) 

Also,
due to heavy lobbying by Aguiar, "SD Focus" will schedule a show featuring higher education as the sole topic soon!