Bunsis goes out of EMU-AAUP Prez with a bang (and with a lot of good points)

While here at the undisclosed locale of my in-law’s, I have been surprised to enjoy better than expected internet access. It is still dicey; right now, I am sitting outside (it’s in the upper 50s/lower 60s here) and I am pirating borrowing a wifi signal from a neighbor who has not locked down their network with a password. Yet.

In any event, while sorting through my email, I came across one from Howard Bunsis I thought I’d post here in its entirety for a couple of reasons. First, Howard raises a lot of good and interesting questions regarding budget cuts, the badly explained cuts in faculty hires, and the very expensive hiring of a new football coach. Second, this is Howard’s last post as president since Susan Moeller is taking over, I believe starting in the winter 2009 term. Thanks to Howard for doing an overall bang-up job, and good luck to Susan.

Here’s his email:

Faculty Colleagues

As the new year beckons, here is an update on issues that have been
happening around campus, and a preview of issues that we are facing as
faculty as we move forward:

• The State of Michigan as yet to announce a mid-year cut to EMU’s
appropriation. In fact, on December 10, 2008, the Governor’s Executive
Order contained $134 million of cuts, but none to the Higher Education
appropriation (see

http://www.michigan.gov/documents/gov/EO_2008-21_-_Budget_12-10-08_259307_7.pdf)

First, let’s put this in the proper context. The State of Michigan
provides EMU with approximately $80 million towards the $300 million
that EMU spends every year. The State was discussing a possible 1% cut
to all public universities, which would mean a $800,000 (1% of $80
million) to EMU. Based on this possibility, the administration
eliminated 13 faculty searches. Since this mid-year cut is not likely
to happen, we hope that the 13 searches will be reauthorized. Let me
know your thoughts on the probability of that occurring.

• When we asked the administration for the criteria utilized to
determine which of the faculty searches would be cut (30 searches
remain), we were not given any definitive answer. There was some
generic talk about credit hours, but there certainly was no systematic
analysis performed – or at least none performed that the Provost’s
office would share with us.

• Over the last few months, we have proven that the academic mission at
EMU has not received its proper share of university resources over the
last several years (see

http://emuprofessors.org/files/ExaminingCommitmenttoAcademicAffairs.pd).

But a very simple statistic demonstrates this lack of focus:
o In 2004, 62% of total spending was directed to Academic Affairs
o In 2009, 54% of total spending will be directed to Academic Affairs.

• Resources have been diverted to the other areas of the university.
What needs to happen is that the administration needs to set clear goals
for spending on the core academic mission of EMU. To be specific as to
where the resources have gone, if we just look at the 2009 budget, and
compare it to what was actually spent in 2008, we find that the two
largest areas of increased spending are:
o AP 10 and above (upper-level administrators)
o Total consumables (SS&M, Travel, Equipment)

The total consumable spending is certainly not going to the academic
departments, which actually have a decrease from 2008 to 2009. The
increase in consumables has been isolated in the following areas:
• President’s Office (athletics and public safety report here)
• Physical plant
• General administration
• Marketing

What conclusions do you draw from all of this?

• Today, the administration announced the hiring of a new football
coach, Ron English from the University of Michigan. It is likely that
Mr. English is a fine man, an excellent coach, and we wish him well.
The costs involved are:
o Paying off Jeff Genyk, our old coach, for 2 years at a salary of
$188,000 per year. In 2007-08, Coach Genyk’s salary was $145,000. He
was then given a three year extension at $188,000 per year. He worked
in 2008-09 for $188,000, and the university is honoring the contract by
paying him the last two years at $188,000 per year, which will be paid
in 2009-10 and 2010-11.
o Paying the new coach a salary of anywhere from $300,000 to $350,000
per year. At the press conference today, the administration would not
reveal the exact amount of the new coach’s compensation, and these
amounts come from press reports in recent days (the Ann Arbor News
reported the salary to be $350,000 per year).
o Paying new assistant football coaches significantly more than the
prior assistant coaches. This will likely lead to an additional $60,000
of costs
o Paying a search firm upwards of $40,000 for this search. Since Mr.
English coached under Lloyd Carr at Michigan, and since Lloyd Carr was
an unpaid consultant on the search, why did we pay a search firm so much
money to find a coach who we got with a phone call?
o The new coach will likely be given additional operating expenses – or
else it will be very difficult for the new coach to go from a big time
football environment to the sphere we operate here at EMU.
o The total marginal cost of hiring the new coach is obviously very
significant, and this marginal cost is much higher than the savings
realized from canceling the searches of 13 faculty members (which is
about $500,000).

Maybe our motto should be Education First and Ten, not Education First.

What are your thoughts on this matter? Please let me know.

This is my last message to you as the current EMU-AAUP president. Since
I will be the incoming treasurer, I will still be involved with the
AAUP. Let me say that it has been a privilege to represent you for
these four years, and I look forward to continue to represent the
faculty as we move forward.

Thanks for listening

Howard