Proposed cuts of 10 polymer professors at the University of Akron have already had a chilling effect on the well-regarded program, leading to anxiety about how it will continue if the reductions become reality.
“It’s like cutting my heart out, my lungs out,” said one polymer engineering professor, who was granted anonymity because he did not have permission to speak to the media. “The research in this university would be gone. Otherwise, what’s the difference between us and Stark State [College]? We are a university; we have to have research and graduate education.”
Faculty in Akron’s polymer program said this week that the proposed cuts would be devastating to the university. But a message from the president’s office, sent to stakeholders in the program, said the university wanted to “bolster” the program by reorganizing it to include chemical engineering and chemistry. The letter said the merger of disciplines would increase faculty interaction with students and encourage multidisciplinary teaching and research.
“The University of Akron is committed to strengthening its world-renowned polymer science and polymer engineering programs,” the letter said. It added that the process to determine where cuts would happen “will generate a more sustainable and justified adjustment that not only maintains, but actually improves, our internationally recognized polymer research and education.”
University of Akron President R.J. Nemer declined to answer questions when approached by a reporter after a Friday meeting of the Board of Trustees.
In addition to polymer science and polymer engineering, the programs at risk of having staff cuts include art, history, electrical and computer engineering, physics, anthropology, chemistry and chemical, biomolecular and corrosion engineering, according to a letter the faculty union president, Toni Bisconti, sent to faculty members Wednesday.
Bisconti said Friday she was worried that the proposed cuts to the polymer program in particular could harm the university’s identity and reputation.
“The amount they’re asking for polymers seems shocking to me,” she said. ”I think that’s pretty scary.”
Uncertainty leads to paralysis in polymer school
Signal Akron reported previously that faculty members were at risk of losing their jobs through a process called retrenchment, a contractual proceeding the university can implement because of financial exigency, significant enrollment reductions over five or more academic semesters or other reasons, according to the union contract.
The university initiated the process due to enrollment drops, reorganization that requires more efficiency, and the modification, elimination or suspension of academic programs, a spokesperson said.
Retrenchment was formally initiated Tuesday, though the university has been seeking voluntary separations from faculty for weeks and will continue to do so through the end of December.
Voluntary separations that meet the faculty reduction goals would “most likely” keep the university from eliminating other faculty in the targeted departments, Nemer said in a Tuesday letter to the provost, John Wiencek. Bisconti said the union would confirm the criteria for retrenchment were met before any cuts were made; any final reductions are not likely to be decided before March.
But regardless of the end result of the retrenchment process, Mark Soucek, interim director of the School of Polymer Science and Polymer Engineering, said faculty had already lost trust in the administration. Faculty have canceled meetings with industrial sponsors they considered collaborating with, postponed the submission of research proposals and delayed assigning graduate students to professors because they don’t know who will be at the university going forward, Soucek said.
“It’s paralyzed us; it’s completely paralyzed us,” he said. “They don’t know if they’re going to work here. It’s as simple as that.”
Soucek said even the discussion of cuts to the polymer program has “severely damaged” its reputation. He said the department felt targeted and that such a high level of cuts — 10 of 19 full-time faculty members — would harm the university as a whole.
“What this does is it takes away the uniqueness of the University of Akron,” he said. “They’re basically killing the whole program. Our morale is shattered right now. Even if they fix it somehow, it’ll take years to regain trust.”
Graduate student: Polymer degrees are a point of pride
One polymer science graduate student who is working to organize students in opposition to the proposed cuts said his classmates are horrified by the proposal. They worry that if their advisers leave, they could lose years of work and have to start over. Signal Akron is granting anonymity to the student because he fears retaliation from the university.
“What they’re doing to the polymer engineering and polymer science school is they’re just breaking it apart bit by bit,” the student said. “They want to destroy it. It’s like that department or that school is just targeted, although it’s basically the program that puts Akron on the map.”
The graduate student said a polymer degree from the University of Akron is a point of pride, something that helps prospective employees get a leg up in the job market. Now, with a potential merger of programs and deep cuts on the horizon, he’s not sure it will hold the same value in the future.
“Those who graduate from Akron, they have degrees that are more respected,” the student said. The pending merger of the departments and subsequent cuts “affect the present, the past and the future students.”
The 10 faculty members in polymer science were part of a list of more than 30 faculty members that could be affected, according to Bisconti’s letter. But the letter from the president’s office to stakeholders said it was not a definitive proposal. Instead, it said, the figure represented “a response to a hypothetical question about reducing faculty based upon teaching load only and the number of students taught.”
“The coming months will flesh out a more definitive proposal and assessment of faculty requirements,” the letter said.
The proposed reorganization with chemical engineering and chemistry, “will allow our polymer faculty to expand their impact and teach more classes and more students, which will result in a stronger department and students who are better equipped to enter the job market,” the letter said. “Our polymer faculty and students will continue to lead the field in research and will be a resource for business, industry and our community.”
The letter also affirmed that the university would meet its workforce development and research and development commitments as part of nearly $100 million in state and federal grants the region received to create a hub for polymer research.
“The university is committed to all the work that we’re doing,” said Steve Millard, president and CEO of the Greater Akron Chamber.
An ‘opening gambit’ on the part of the university
Soucek said he had gotten signals that the initial numbers would be a negotiation. Kevin Kern, an associate professor of history, said he could see the original list that was distributed to faculty as a bargaining chip in an extended retrenchment process that could end with different results entirely. Two history faculty members were on the initial list.
“I wouldn’t be surprised if they had it as an opening gambit,” he said.
But Kern said even with the faculty union, the American Association of University Professors, negotiating to give faculty more time to gather data and respond to the university’s opening salvo, “it’s still going to be traumatic for these departments.”
The union was able to negotiate an extension for the departments to respond until Jan. 13, Bisconti said — the initial agreement would have required a response by early December. Bisconti said over the next seven weeks, faculty members and departments will be able to offer up other creative solutions, like combining departments, in order to save jobs. She said the university did not give the union a dollar amount that it was targeting to save.
She said so far, the negotiations were happening in good faith. But she’s still worried about the mood on campus after a third force reduction in less than a decade.
“Even if we’re relatively unscathed, it’s a really big morale hit just when we’re starting to get back,” she said. “We would prefer other parts of the university take a hit that are not academic.”
The concerns have spread across campus, including to students in departments that would not be directly affected by any cuts. Liv Ream, a senior public relations major, said she was concerned that university officials were “rushing to fire faculty.”
“Maybe the people in charge of making decisions should consider taking a pay cut themselves,” she said. “I think it looks really bad. What are people even paying to go here for?”
Retrenchment criteria for making the cuts
Kern said he felt the retrenchment process, which lays out a timeline for the negotiation of faculty cuts, was more transparent than previous reductions in force the university has gone through. The union contract has criteria for decision-making about cuts, which includes:
- A program’s historical role and contributions to the university’s mission and circumstances that might have changed to alter those contributions;
- The dependence of other programs in the university on the college, department or program;
- Duplication elsewhere in the university of courses or research offered through the department and possible arrangements that might serve as alternatives to discontinuing the program;
- Stature of faculty and alumni and the possible consequences to the academic stature of the university through discontinuation.
But some professors are questioning the initial proposal. One University of Akron professor, whom Signal Akron is granting anonymity to because they fear reprisal, said the proposal to cut physics faculty is puzzling because the department brings in money. They said each physics professor teaches about 200 students per semester, though the major was suspended in 2018. Physics is still a basic requirement for related fields in majors the university retains.
“We’re kind of in panic mode at the moment because we haven’t had time to digest the changes,” the professor said. “… Finding ways to come up with a solution is absurd really, considering there’s not a lot we can do. I’m not sure what we’re expected to come up with.”
The professor said the mood on campus was that “it’s a bad time for everybody.”
Concern that research is no longer a priority
That was also the sense for history department chair Martin Wainwright.
“I think there’s been a cloud hanging over us for a few weeks now,” Wainwright said. “… It’s a serious issue. There’s a lot of people very worried.”
The polymer engineering professor said he was still reeling from the news days after receiving it. Both Soucek and the professor said they were frustrated that the grants, research and other benefits the polymer programs bring to the university did not appear to be given consideration.
Any faculty cuts to the school, which saw its graduate enrollment drop when international recruiting was halted during the coronavirus pandemic, will have a “ripple effect” for the region’s workforce, the professor said. He added that a decision-making formula that looked at teaching load and the number of students taught would necessarily under-value the program, which is relatively new for undergraduate students and has fewer than two dozen people enrolled.
More time to recruit back international graduate students and build the undergraduate program are necessary for the university’s wellbeing, he said.
“This is too sudden, too harsh,” he said. “We built something and now, with the stroke of a pen, half of it is gone. I don’t think we will ever be able to build it back to what it was.”
The result, he said, could be that the university becomes a teaching school with little research — a decision that would harm the region’s ecosystem, he said, since most graduates stay in Ohio to work after leaving the university.
The initial proposal sends confusing messages about what the university prioritizes, said Henry Astley, an associate professor of biology. His department is not affected by the proposed cuts and is continuing to hire a new faculty member, Astley said. But he said the proposed cuts, which include both research- and teaching-heavy departments, don’t send an unambiguous message about the university’s direction.
“I can’t see the future; I can’t tell if this is a good thing or a bad thing,” he said. “They’re facing some real constraints and they’re doing their best.”