The Belleville News-Democrat does not have a very charitable take toward the SIUC members on the SIU Board of Trustees. Of course, despite the approaching parity in terms of enrollment, SIUC has far more residential students than does SIUE and also grants doctoral degrees, which SIUE does not, and which require more intensive time commitment from faculty. Granted, I got my doctoral degree from SIUC a number of years ago, but I had to wait several years to enter the program, as there were too many doctoral candidates and not enough faculty available to advise them. Some of the backlog, so to speak, had to clear out of the channel before the program could admit new students.
However, due to the huge number of faculty who have gone elsewhere or retired, many departments do not have the key people to work on doctoral dissertations - something that next year's accreditation review will note. While administrators keep getting appointed, replacement faculty do not. Is this a conscious design here?
ReplyDeleteUnfortunately, that is a trend at all universities. Not just SIUC. Do not remember what the ratio of faculty to administration is nationally but it is much smaller than it was 20-30 years ago.
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