FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Contact: Randall Phillis 413 687-2883
February 9. 2009

Chancellor Holub reorganization plan shifts balance of power on UMass–Amherst campus

At a general faculty meeting Monday afternoon UMass faculty are seeking answers to several questions about Chancellor Robert Holub’s campus reorganization plan and the future of the university. Holub released his plan on February 3, 2009 for a dramatic reconfiguration of departments on campus that would eliminate two colleges and create a large and research-powerful College of Natural Science and a second large College of Humanities, Arts, and Social Sciences. Holub also announced a Task Force on Reorganization composed largely of department chairs to review his proposal and report by March 6, 2008.

Many faculty are concerned about the strategic implications of the reorganizations. The Massachusetts Society of Professors, the faculty union on campus, has been calling on the administration to develop a strategic plan for over a year, hoping to engage the community of scholars on campus to develop a set of long term goals for the campus. “Holub first arrived on campus complaining that the Amherst 250 plan (a detailed strategy to replace faculty lost to campus in past budget cuts) was ‘a fetish about a number and not related to a strategic plan’ without learning about the detailed planning involved in developing the hiring process. He also failed to engage the campus community in the development of a long term strategic plan. Instead, he announced a college reorganization without any apparent relationship to a shared vision of campus development.”, said Max Page, Associate Professor of the Art and Art History department and former MSP president.

Holub’s reasons for the reorganization have included cost savings of about $1.3 million which pale in comparison to the enormous budget cuts the campus faces. He has also suggested the importance of convincing donors, legislators or the UMass Board of Trustees that we are ‘serious’ about dealing with budget cuts. The faculty are very serious about the budget cuts and are very concerned about the next set of issues the campus will face. “We weren’t told about the specifics of his reorganization plan until last week, and he denied that he even had a specific plan. Now, we are being told nothing about the most important issue; how the campus will cope with the real crisis of a possible $20 million cut” said Dan Clawson Professor of Sociology and MSP vice president.

Faculty are concerned about the process involved in developing the college reorganization plan. Though committees have been formed, they have only been charged with approving the Chancellor’s plan rather than considering the best possible course of action. More unsettling, Holub has stated that if faculty resist his plan, their departments will suffer as they will be fighting changes that cannot be modified. This violates basic process in faculty governance which charges the faculty at large with developing, considering and approving changes to the university that affect academic programs. “We could be in a win-win situation if the Chancellor would trust the faculty to help create the strategies and tactics required for UMass to move forward in these very troubling times. The UMass faculty have devoted their careers to the institution and are dedicated to its success. When faculty are excluded and plans are developed behind closed doors, it only weakens the Chancellor’s position and weakens the university.” explained Randall Phillis, Associate Professor of Biology and President of the MSP.

There are several motions to be considered at the Monday meeting that reflect the development of an overall strategic plan and the process for evaluation of the quality of any campus reorganization plans.

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