A University of Akron committee, created to advise the school on proposed faculty cuts and new income streams, said in a report this month that the number of professors leaving voluntarily should stave off forced separations and that additional ideas to raise money could result in $2 million in new revenue.
Additionally, the committee said a proposal to merge the Departments of Chemistry and Chemical, Biomolecular, and Corrosion Engineering with the School of Polymer Science and Polymer Engineering, and reduce the polymer faculty by 10 people, “would damage the reputation that the school has built over the years,” both regionally and internationally.
Instead, the committee suggested the polymer program maintain its current staffing level, remain separate from the other departments and improve its research productivity to be able to fully pay graduate students’ stipends and tuition through research grants.
The proposals are recommendations, and the university’s Board of Trustees will make the final decision about the future of the polymer science school and the number of faculty subject to a process called retrenchment. In an April 4 message to faculty members announcing the report of the Joint Committee on Retrenchment, University President R.J. Nemer said he would “carefully consider” the recommendations made by that committee and others before making his own suggestions to the board.
“Considerations of this magnitude must be treated with both seriousness and sensitivity,” Nemer said in his message. “I vow careful reflection on the JCR’s work, thoughtful leadership and targeted strategy as I formulate my recommendations.”
A spokesperson for the university said the Board of Trustees is expected to vote Tuesday on those recommendations.
“We encourage the president and Board of Trustees to carefully consider our findings and recommendations, as we believe they will guide the institution toward a sustainable and thoughtful resolution,” the committee’s report concluded. “Ultimately, it is our collective goal to maintain the university’s academic excellence while addressing the financial challenges that have led to this difficult decision.”
Some programs have enough voluntary exits to avoid more cuts
Citing significant enrollment reductions in a number of departments across several semesters, the university began the retrenchment process in the fall with a proposal to close the anthropology and physics departments and cut more than 30 faculty positions across eight departments. The School of Polymer Science and Polymer Engineering would have been the hardest hit of the departments that remained, according to the original proposal.
Since the process began, the report said, voluntary separations in departments not identified for retrenchment would save the university $817,261 (which includes the cost to replace some people). Additionally, voluntary separations in those departments that were targeted would save a projected $4.3 million by 2027. The savings are 116% of what the university was targeting in its original retrenchment proposal, the report said.
“I think their work was really thorough,” said Toni Bisconti, a professor of psychology and the president of the Akron chapter of the American Association of University Professors, the union that represents faculty at the university. “They made a pretty compelling case that we shouldn’t really need further reductions.”
Bisconti said she’s trying to be agnostic about specific proposals until she learns the intentions of the Board of Trustees, but that she was pleased by the collaborative process that resulted in the recommendations.
Still, she said, that doesn’t mean the targeted departments won’t be affected.
“Some units are still going to be hurting, for sure,” she said.
Three departments that were singled out for cuts because of a reduction in enrollment in their programs had enough people leave that additional separations in those programs shouldn’t be necessary, the report said.
At the Mary Schiller Myers School of Art, five people left voluntarily. Those savings represented $548,736, more than $82,000 more than what was targeted. The report also said the school revised its curriculum to make up for the reduction in faculty, finding further efficiencies that saved more money beyond the original goal.
Four faculty members left the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, saving $818,716 — $500,000 more than the original savings goal for that department, which had targeted a reduction of three people. And the two people who left the Department of History represent $301,874 in savings, more than $96,000 above what was targeted for the department.
Anthropology and physics professors should be kept, even if programs are eliminated
The two programs that were targeted for elimination, anthropology and physics, should still retain faculty in order to give Akron students a well-rounded education, the report said.
The Department of Anthropology filed a grievance after the university recommended a reduction of six faculty members for a savings of $576,333. The suspension of the anthropology program was abrupt, the report said. If it is not overturned in the grievance process, the committee recommended the department be dissolved but four faculty members kept to teach general educational requirements and medical anthropology. One has already volunteered for deferred retirement, the report said; a second would still need to.
The university does not have enough general education courses to absorb the loss of those taught by the anthropology department, the report said. It added that the department would need to continue for three to four years so students who had already begun studying anthropology could complete their degrees.
And, a medical anthropology certificate could draw students interested in health care, the committee wrote, as well as be “an attractive ‘off-ramp’ for pre-medical students to stay at UA even after they realize that medical school is not realistic.”
Faculty reductions would still be needed if the expected voluntary separations don’t take place.
The Department of Physics “made a persuasive argument that physics courses are foundational to both engineering and pre-medical students and thus retaining high-quality physics teachers on UA’s main campus is important to maintaining strong majors in those areas and for UA’s brand,” the report said.
While one person volunteered to leave the university — the original reduction request was for five — the committee recommended that the physics faculty be reduced to three people from six, with the physics faculty moving into the chemistry or math departments. Three faculty have the potential to retire by mid-2027, the report said, and a fourth has agreed to relinquish tenure and be rehired as a professor of practice for three years. Altogether, the moves could save more than $500,000.
Merging polymer science, other programs, not beneficial to university
The proposal originally called for three faculty in the Corrosion Engineering Program to be eliminated and an additional two faculty members to be cut from the Department of Chemical, Biomolecular and Corrosion Engineering. Additionally, the former provost, John Wiencek, also suggested the Department of Chemical, Biomolecular, and Corrosion Engineering merge with the Department of Chemistry and the School of Polymer Science and Polymer Engineering.
The report said it was not at all clear what efficiencies would be created by a merger or “how merging these units would be beneficial to UA.” It recommends against the merger.
The polymer science school “has excellent industry connections, in Ohio and more broadly, which could be diminished by such a proposed merger,” the report said.
Instead, the committee suggested the polymer science school fully fund graduate students with research money. And it says the Department of Chemical, Biomolecular and Corrosion Engineering should focus on targeted recruitment, program development and deferred retirements as options to increase enrollment and reduce costs.
Retrenchment might still be on the table if those efforts aren’t fruitful, the report said.
Three members of the Department of Chemical, Biomolecular and Corrosion Engineering opted to leave their jobs, saving more than $455,000. At the School of Polymer Science and Polymer Engineering, two voluntary exits resulted in savings of more than $489,000 and two more retirements at the end of the 2025-2026 academic year would save an additional $529,000.
Ideas to bring in revenue were also requested
The university also sought moneymaking ideas from faculty members. The committee estimates expanding course offerings in the summer could bring in $450,000 in additional revenue this year and more than $2 million beginning next year.
Proposals also include sharing graduate courses with local universities under an existing agreement that would allow civil engineering courses to be taught across the University of Akron, Cleveland State and Youngstown State universities. The committee recommended including the University of Toledo in the agreement and expanding the program to other departments. The university would receive money when courses are completed and additional funds if a student completes a degree and graduates that semester.
And the report recommends implementing two additional proposals, one that creates a school focused on public affairs and the other an intercollegiate health committee. The income potential for those proposals is not clear, and details on the proposals weren’t available.
Bisconti said she found the ideas “super exciting” but wished they could have come earlier in the process.
The efforts of the academic units are significant, she said, but are “a drop in the bucket” of what the university needs to save to stave off its financial issues. Bisconti said she hopes athletics, the administration and other areas are also targeted; she said she was pleased to learn that the university would be selling property it didn’t need as a way to save money.
Although the faculty exits are voluntary separations, Bisconti said there should be no misunderstanding — they are a reduction in force and one that many people felt pressured to take in order to save the jobs of others.
“I don’t think our effort alone is going to save the university. The university has to save the university,” she said. “I’m not sure where you’d be able to cut again. … If this exercise taught me anything, it’s that there are no more trees or branches to shake.”