Interviewer & Editor: Collin Mansur
Over the summer, the Arete Review interviewed Dan O’Connor, Dean of the College of Liberal Arts and Social Science (CLASS) at the University of Houston. In February of this year, The Cougar—a student run newspaper at the University—published the articles “Save our CLASS” & “UH Journalism Program in Desperate Need of Repair.” In these articles, they made claims ranging from an exodus of CLASS faculty to a general indifference from the administration towards the department’s health.
In light of these allegations, we reached out:
Tell us what you do in your position as Dean of CLASS. A dean is the chief executive of a college. The role of dean is to align college resources and activity in service with the mission of the university, which is transforming lives through education. In a practical sense, I manage both the day-to-day operations of the college and am responsible for planning for the college’s future success.
Do you feel that the university provides CLASS with adequate financing and resources? UH’s annual budget is largely funded by tuition and fees, which is directly tied to student enrollment. While legislative funding has helped with some priorities, including recruiting top faculty, CLASS has seen stagnant overall enrollment. Some departments have grown while others have not, leading to an imbalance in resource allocation. Aligning resources with departmental needs and course requirements is essential and falls under the dean’s responsibilities. To maintain a balanced budget, we’ve made necessary adjustments to improve efficiency and reduce costs. Although these changes may differ from past practices, they are routine and essential for maintaining a balanced budget. Responsible fiscal management requires continual resource reallocation to meet the evolving needs of students.
A major issue cited in The Cougar’s article is CLASS’s faculty retention. They said that “between 2022 and 2023, CLASS lost 47 faculty – more than all other departments combined. Not only does this exodus highlight how faculty feel estranged from the administration, but the lack of effort used to stymie this decline betrays an indifference towards the health of our department.” Can you shed some light on why this decrease was made? The conclusion that CLASS “lost 47 faculty” is misleading, as is characterizing the situation as an “exodus”. We classify “faculty” as any person teaching a class, whether they are full-time or under contract semester-to-semester or year-to-year. Lecturers teach classes on a part-time basis, limited term contracts (semester or year). The part-time faculty will shift year to year depending on where the greatest need is. We are certainly not “indifferent towards the health of our department” and our efforts to maximize our impact by making changes to provide the best opportunities for student success speaks to that.
The next concern in the article is the increase in upper-level course sizes from 10-20 students to 28-35 students. The article poses that this increase does not correspond to an increase in enrollment but instead the aforementioned decrease in faculty. Is this increase in upper-level class sizes true? If so, is it due to the decrease in faculty? The article says that an increase in these class sizes devalues them by stripping the classes of their intimacy. Is that risk a concern to you? Is there any remedy to this issue? Is CLASS working towards a solution? The departments adjust section sizes as appropriate to the discipline, teaching mode (in person vs. online) and pedagogy, and consistent with practices in other public universities in Texas and nationally. These accurate stats might be helpful:
The average section size across the college is 43.
36% of our undergraduate courses are taught at a size of 20 or less
82% of undergraduate courses are taught to 50 or less
Is there a vast pool of candidates to choose from or is hiring limited by too few qualified candidates? Do you support the tenure-system? Do tenured professors affect CLASS’s capacity to reallocate funding when needed? If so, how do you manage that? CLASS has not had any shortage of qualified applicants for full-time faculty positions. Many posted positions receive hundreds of applicants. I am a strong advocate of tenure, which protects the ability to conduct the types of research needed for transformational discoveries and innovation to address societal challenges and provide educated and talented workforce for our industries. We also would not want high turnover of full-time faculty, which leads to instability and inconsistency in delivery of degrees. Stability of faculty is another advantage of tenure.
All full-time employees affect our ability to reallocate funding, since someone has to leave a position (retire, resign, or terminate) to move salary funds from one unit to another. That is not unique to tenured professors. I manage it by being strategic and intentional in hiring full-time faculty and staff into areas of greatest need and impact when funds become available.
In the same February issue of The Cougar, they published an opinion piece titled “UH Journalism Program in Desperate Need of Repair.” In it they reported a few different issues within the school. “… recent cuts to the College of Liberal Arts and Social Sciences have accelerated an ongoing downward trajectory that culminated in the dismissal of as many as 60% of the school’s adjunct professors at the end of last year, according to emails secured by The Cougar.” “Adjuncts” (part-time faculty lecturers) are not “cut.” The number of adjuncts teaching during any given semester fluctuates based on instructional need. Some departments in CLASS have had increases in adjunct instructors and others have had decreases, in response to changing enrollment.
The Cougar: “In the emails, administrators within the college were directed to cut costs by ‘encouraging professors to teach courses they have not taught recently,’ ‘limiting electives,’ increasing class sizes and shifting from in-person to online. … Some eyebrows may have been raised when students noticed their course cap rose from 50 to 200. The emails claim CLASS is experiencing a deficit of as much as $3 million — a figure the University officially denies — and that the cuts were necessary as a result.” This statement is inaccurate. The email in question was inaccurate and sent by someone without full knowledge of the details or authority to send such a message. CLASS has not accumulated an annual budget deficit of $3M. Again, CLASS has ended each of the past seven years with a balanced budget.
The Cougar: “The emails also revealed that pay equity has become a concern within CLASS. One professor pointed to the apparent salary gulf between CLASS adjuncts and those at other colleges. According to their data, instructors within CLASS are paid 40% less per course than faculty at other institutions” CLASS lecturers (“adjuncts”) were never paid 40% less per course than at other regional institutions or other UH colleges; in fact, our rates last year were slightly above the local market average for most disciplines. However, to attract and retain the best quality instructors, CLASS has raised the minimum per-section stipend for part-time, temp faculty (“adjuncts”) from $3,000 to $4,500 starting this Fall – a 50% increase. I believe that makes UH the highest adjunct rate in the region for the academic disciplines we have. I committed to this in 2021-22 as I was transitioning from interim to permanent dean.
Can you confirm or deny any of the figures mentioned in the article? What drives these sorts of decisions (dismissal of professors/ increased course caps)? Student success is our top priority. Providing essential courses for degree progression drives resource allocation in CLASS. Universities, like any organization, regularly review and adjust operations for efficiency. I have transparently communicated with faculty and staff about necessary measures to maintain a balanced budget while ensuring students can enroll in courses they need. Recent changes in course schedules focus on high-demand courses, optimizing the use of full-time faculty and improving student access to required courses. By reducing low-demand courses and adding high-demand courses, we ensure students have better access to needed courses taught by dedicated full-time faculty.
A special thank you to Dean O’Connor and the Executive Director of Media Relations at UH, Kevin Quinn.