Several departments may soon be looking to hire new professors, thanks to recent changes in USF St. Petersburg’s budget.
Frank Biafora, the Dean of the Arts and Sciences department, says these are the “most exciting hiring years” he has seen in his time at USF St. Petersburg.
Biafora said that due to the economy and the decline in state funding, the University experienced a slowdown of hires due to budget constraints. “The cost of running a university doesn’t change,” Biafora said.
When full time tenure track faculty retired, the university relied on part time adjunct professors. These professors bring a level of expertise to the classroom, Biafora said. “Students love them.” However, these professors have other careers, so they are rarely at USF St. Petersburg, where students need them to be.
Biafora has seen enrollment increases and new degree programs, and notes that USF St. Petersburg is at “the bottom of the budget decline.” The university is now able to hire all four types of professors: part time adjunct, full time visiting, full time instructors, and full time tenure track professors.
Full time visiting professors and full time instructors are given a contract for one year. Full time visiting professors can renew that contract up to a maximum of four times, while full time instructors can renew the contracts indefinitely. Full time tenure track professors, unlike the others, are permanent and have obligations of research and service. These professors can bring real life experiences into the classroom and offer students with research opportunities, Biafora said.
But the challenges aren’t over for the College of Arts and Sciences. In order to obtain permission to hire professors, they must demonstrate there is a gap in learning outcomes to the regional vice chancellor. Once they have obtained permission and organized a committee, they must work with Human Resources to advertise.
Human Resources must certify that the pool of candidates is “diverse”. Kristen Smuder in HR notes that they look for a mixture of race, ethnicity, and gender. They also assess if the committee has advertised in multiple publications.
While Smuder says turning away a pool of candidates is uncommon, Biafora sees certifying diversity as a challenge. In this hiring period, HR asked the college to re-advertise because the pool was weak in terms of diversity.
When this process is over, Biafora notes that there will be “stability in the institution”. Most of the new hires will start in the fall semester.
