92 Ball State faculty take buyout
'Changing expectations,' 'new skills' prompted some to retire early
MUNCIE — Ninety-two veteran Ball State University faculty have accepted buyouts that the school says it offered to help it adapt to rapidly changing expectations for higher education that require new teaching skills.
(You can see a list of those faculty, whose retirement date is May 14, below. The last day for regular classes and final examination period are just around the corner, followed by commencement on May 7).
BSU insists that the Voluntary Early Retirement Incentive Plan was not prompted by the financial distress cited by a number of other schools that have used employee buyouts to downsize because of the pandemic and declining enrollment.
But some Ball State faculty are concerned about the plan’s potential consequences, such as fewer tenured faculty and less research.
“This sounds like a reduction in force to me,” one professor told me for a previous article.
Another said the buyout “gives the university the opportunity to get rid of the highest-paid faculty so that that part of the budget goes away. I can’t imagine they’re going to hire replacement faculty. They just want to get smaller.”
In a column in the Indianapolis Business Journal, Cecil Bohanon, a Ball State professor of economics, called the BSU buyouts “a perfect example of marginal analysis” — a central component of the “economic way of thinking.”
“It is no accident Ball State is targeting older, longer tenured and higher paid employees to reduce its costs,” he wrote.
There are currently 1,045 full-time faculty members and academic administrators at BSU, Burris Laboratory School, and the Indiana Academy for Science, Mathematics and Humanities.
Of that group, 285 — or 27.28 percent — were eligible to participate in the one-time buyout, the university has said.
Faculty must be at least 55 and employed full-time to qualify for a separation incentive payment, equal to 125% of the employee’s base salary.
If the average salary of the 92 faculty who are retiring were $100,000, the buyouts would cost $11.5 million. If the average salary were $50,000, the cost would total $5.75 million.
The faculty being lost include multiple department chairs.
Ball State’s marketing and communications staff did not respond to telephone and email inquiries seeking comment and clarification for this story during the past several weeks.
Previously in Greater Muncie: BSU faculty question intent of buyout
The university’s Office of General Counsel released the names of the early retirees to me in response to an Access to Public Records Act Request. The compensation of the early retirees was not yet available.
In a frequently-asked-questions sections on its website, BSU explained the voluntary severance package as follows:
In December 2018, prior to the advent of the pandemic, the Board approved our new strategic plan, which included strategic imperatives regarding innovative pedagogies and transdisciplinary teaching and learning, as well as developing new alternative credentials and short-term learning modules.
Now, in order to adapt to the rapidly changing expectations for higher education, we must accelerate the implementation of these key strategies.
With this plan, we are able to accelerate the implementation of our strategic plan while simultaneously demonstrating our gratitude to some of our most dedicated full-time faculty. We recognize that the changing expectations and the new skills needed for faculty may prompt some faculty to decide to retire sooner than they had planned.
The FAQ says not all of the faculty positions being vacated under the plan will be permanently eliminated:
“The provost, in consultation with the academic deans, will recommend to the president how to redeploy some of the vacant faculty positions in alignment with our future instructional needs.”
Here is the list of faculty who took a buyout:
Bantz, Diana L., Ph.D., Associate Professor of Nursing and Associate Director for Graduate Program
Bottomley, Diane M., Ph.D., Associate Professor of Elementary Education
Boyland, Lori G., Ed.D., Professor of Educational Leadership
Brackett, Jeffrey M., Ph.D., Associate Professor of Religious Studies
Buis, Paul E., Ph.D., Associate Professor of Computer Science
Byers, Bryan D., Ph.D., Professor of Criminal Justice and Criminology
Caristi, Dominic G., Ph.D., Professor of Media
Carter, Mary C., Ph.D., Assistant Professor of Art Education
Chapman, Joseph D., Ph.D., Associate Professor of Marketing and Director of the Center for Professional Selling
Chen, Catherine S., Ph.D., Professor of Information Systems and Operations Management and Assistant Dean of Undergraduate Programs
Clark, Patricia A., Ph.D., Professor of Early Childhood, Youth, and Family Studies
Crawford, Elizabeth A., D.M., Professor of Music Performance (Clarinet),
Desouza, Josephine M. S., Ph.D., Associate Professor of Biology
Eggink, Harry A., M.Arch., Professor of Architecture
Ellery, Jane E., Ph.D., Assistant Professor of Wellness Management
Ester, Don P., Ph.D., Professor of Music Education
Frankel, Bruce W., Ph.D., Professor of Urban Planning
Friedman, Francine S., Ph.D., Professor of Political Science
Friesen, Carol A., Ph.D., Professor of Nutrition and Dietetics
Gerhard, Michael E., Ph.D., Associate Professor of Media
Grigsby, Jeffry D., Ph.D., Professor of Geological Sciences
Groeber, Ronald X., J.D., Assistant Professor of Business Law
Grondzik, Walter T., M.S., Professor of Architecture
Groom, Frank M., Ph.D., Professor of Information and Communication Sciences
Hall, Kenneth R., Ph.D., Professor of History
Hogue, S. Homes, Ph.D., Department Chair of the Department of Anthropology and Professor of Anthropology
Jasper, Maura, M.F.A., Associate Professor of Art
Jones, Stephan S., Ph.D., Professor of Information and Communication Sciences
Kaminsky, Leonard A., Ph.D., Director of the Fisher Institute for Health and Well Being
Kellogg, Hans P., M.S., Associate Professor of Art
Kovac, Ronald J., Ph.D., Professor of Information and Communication Sciences
LeBlanc, David C., Ph.D., Professor of Biology
Ledbetter, John H., Ph.D., Department Chair of Accounting and Associate Professor of Accounting
Leitze, Annette E., Ph.D., Professor of Mathematical Sciences
Mahon, Anthony D., Ph.D., Professor of Exercise Science
Maurer, Kathleen M., D.M.A., Associate Professor of Voice
McConnell, T. Roger, M.M., Associate Professor of Music Performance
McDonald, Becky A., Ph.D., Assistant Professor of Journalism
Melser, Nancy A., Ed.D., Assistant Professor of Elementary Education
Pearson, David R., Ph.D., Associate Professor of Exercise Science
Perera, M.C. Nihal, Ph.D., Professor of Urban Planning
Peterson, Raileen L., Ph.D., Associate Professor of English
Pohly, Linda L., Ph.D., Professor of Music History and Musicology and AssociateDirector and Coordinator of Graduate Programs
Pollard, Timothy D., M.A., Associate Dean for Academic Affairs and Student Relations and Associate Professor of Media
Popplewell, Scott R., Ed.D., Assistant Professor of Elementary Education
Pounds, Michael S., D.M.A., Professor of Music Theory and Composition
Pufpaff, Lisa A., Ph.D., Associate Professor of Special Education
Reagan, Daniel J., Ph.D., Professor of Political Science
Rice-Snow, R. Scott, Ph.D., Department Chair of the Department of Environmental, Geology, and Natural Resources and Professor of Geological Sciences
Riddle, Elizabeth M., Ph.D., Professor of English
Rosenblatt, Jody, M.L.Arch., Professor of Landscape Architecture
Sawrie, Mark D., M.F.A., Associate Professor of Art
Shafer, Kathryn G., Ph.D., Associate Professor of Mathematical Sciences
Spengler, Paul M., Ph.D., Professor of Psychology Counseling
Spillman, Mary M., M.S., Associate Professor of Journalism
Steele, Rayford L., Ph.D., Professor of Information and Communication Sciences
Stump, Sheryl L., Ph.D., Professor of Mathematical Sciences
Suppe, Frederick C., Ph.D., Associate Professor of History
Thomas, Cynthia M., Ed.D., Professor of Nursing
True, Kerri L., Ph.D., Professor of Psychological Science
Truex, Scott I., M.Arch., Department Chair of the Department of Urban Planning andAssociate Professor of Urban Planning
Turcotte, Kevin M., Ph.D., Professor of Geography
Twibell, K. Renee, D.N.Sc., Associate Professor of Nursing
Wahlers, Russell G., D.B.A., Department Chair of the Department of Marketing andAssociate Professor of Marketing
Weidner, Thomas G., Ph.D., Department Chair of the School of Kinesiology
Whaley, Mitchell H., Ph.D., Professor of Clinical Exercise Physiology
Wood, Martin L., Ph.D., Associate Professor of Health Science
Yssel, Hendrina F., Ph.D., Professor of Special Education
Zamlauski-Tucker, Marianna J., Ph.D., Assistant Professor of Physiology
Zhao, Jensen J., Ed.D., Professor of Information Systems and Operations Management
Zheng, Guohe , Ph.D., Professor of Japanese
Also:
Bell, Vance A., M.F.A., Teaching Professor of Art
Birk, Valerie J., M.A., Assistant Lecturer of Apparel Design
Burden, Marsha L., M.S., Senior Clinical Lecturer of Nursing
Cain, Ruby F., Ed.D., Associate Professor of Practice and Advisor of Adult and Community Education
Church, Rene A., M.A., Associate Teaching Professor of Art
Clark-Flynn, Mary E., M.A., Senior Lecturer of English
Fick, Janet K., M.A., Associate Lecturer of Construction Management
Humphrey, Kathryn E., M.S., Assistant Clinical Lecturer of Nursing
Kneubuhler, Cheryl J., M.A., Assistant Lecturer of Mathematical Sciences
Mahmoodi, Mahnaz F., M.A., Senior Clinical Lecturer of Nursing
Mayfield, Michael R., M.S., Instructor of Life Sciences
Metzger, Juli A., M.S., Associate Lecturer of Journalism
Rondeau, Patrick J., Ph.D., Assistant Professor of Information Systems and Operations Management
Seset, Laura L., Ph.D., Teaching Professor of German
Spillman, Michael, M.S., Senior Lecturer of Media
Swingley, Rich W., M.S., Digital Audio Associate Lecturer of Media
Turnbull, Merrielle , Ph.D., Teaching Professor of English
Van Hove, Sharon P., M.S.N., Senior Clinical Lecturer of Nursing
Waechter, Daniel B., M.A., Assistant Dean of CCIM Curriculum, Associate Chairperson, and Senior Lecturer of Journalism
Wallace, John L., Ph.D., Associate Teaching Professor of Psychological Science
Zapp, Peter, M.F.A., Associate Teaching Professor of Theatre
OTHER RETIREMENTS:
Cairns, Malcolm D., M.L.Arch., Professor of Landscape Architecture, effective June 30, 2022
Shannon, Jill K., M.L.S., Head of Authority Control and Bibliographic Control, effective April 1, 2022
Ferrer, Jose L., Ph.D., Teaching Professor of Spanish, effective December 15, 2021
Plesha, Suzanne G., M.A., Director of Immersive Learning, effective May 13, 2022