Zack Quaintance
Daily Egyptian
As the fourth anniversary of Chancellor Walter Wendler's employment at
SIUC passes, he has undeniably outperformed his last three predecessors
in one area - longevity.
Friday marked four years that Wendler has worked at Anthony Hall. Since
1996, no other chancellor has lasted more than two years.
"Southern at 150," a set of goals for the University to reach
before its 150th birthday in 2019, is the best characterization of
Wendler's employment at SIUC. The plan has showed some marked progress,
but an unexpected economic recession in Illinois and a rift between the
faculty association and the chancellor have complicated things.
The plan aims to launch SIUC into the nation's top 75 research
institutions. When it was announced during spring 2003, Wendler called
it a living document, and left the door open for changes. While that
door is not closed, Wendler said last week that he is pleased with the
way things have progressed.
Colleges across campus recently compiled a report on the progress they
made toward "Southern at 150" during the last 12 months. Progress has
been varied throughout campus.
Recruiting and retaining faculty was one area that saw significant
gains, which Provost John Dunn said is one of the administrator's top
priorities.
"We had a very good year with a number of successful searches," Dunn said.
The University is pleased to have hired 83 new tenure track faculty
members, the most in recent years, because faculty is vital to the
success of the University, Dunn said.
However, some faculty members are not satisfied with the
administration. Marvin Zeman, president of the faculty association,
said the chancellor is personable and always willing to listen but
rarely acts upon the advice he receives.
"So far Chancellor Wendler has been unable to get anywhere close to
what he has envisioned," Zeman said. "This has been mostly due to his
reluctance to accept other people's input and criticisms, especially
those not in line with his own ideas."
Wendler previously said when it comes to SIUC he has 51 percent of the
vote. However, if the University plans on making it into the top 75
research institutions, the chancellor will have to open his mind to
faculty input, Zeman said.
An example of Wendler's reluctance to implement faculty ideas is his
treatment of the Judicial Review Board's tenure and promotion
decisions, Zeman said. When tenure track faculty members come up for
review and do not receive a promotion, they can file a grievance with
the Judicial Review Board. The committee is made up of three people:
one selected by the provost, one selected by the grievant and a
member of the Judicial Review Board.
Last year, Wendler denied four out of five unanimous decisions for tenure and promotion.
"If SIUC is going to see progress, its leaders need to demonstrate respect for its faculty and staff," Zeman said.
Faculty is the core of the University, and it needs to be carefully
scrutinized, Wendler said. However, it is going to be hard to meet
retention goals when leadership does not respect the core of its
University, Zeman said.
Faculty retention is not immediately visible to students, but they may be noticing an increase in construction vehicles.
"Over the past four years we've had somewhat of a building boom here on
campus," Wendler said. "Again that's not just me. Some of that was
started before I got here, but the bottom line is right now we have
more construction going on on campus than has gone on in the last 30
years."
The progress report shows that the building boom is poised to continue
with officials refining a plan to update the Communications Building,
which was built in the 1960s and is widely considered out of date.
Construction and faculty retention aside, "Southern at 150" programs have raised a record amount of scholarship money.
"We've increased dramatically the number of scholarships we're giving," Wendler said.
The report's scholarship section shows that between the College of
Liberal Arts and the College of Business Administration alone,
undergraduate scholarships increased by more than $150,000.
During the last four years, money from the University available to
students has increased, but in that same time, state allocations to
SIUC have decreased, forcing administrators to become creative with
their budgets.
This year is no different. In June, the state budget did not give SIUC
increased appropriations. Because of inflation, not receiving more
money is the equivalent of losing money, Wendler said. Administrators
have been forced to resort to unpopular actions, such as large tuition
increases for incoming freshmen and international students.
It is easy to increase construction and scholarships funds if you keep
hiking tuition, Zeman said. A result of raising the fees will be
decreased enrollment, a trend already evident among international
students, he said.
"We've got funding challenges, of course," Wendler said. "The way we've
been dealing with that so far is pretty much raising tuition and fees.
But the bottom line is in order to give pay raises and that sort of
thing, that's what we have to do."
Increased tuition in fiscal year 2006 is used for many things, and the
University will have $28,576,200 of new revenue, administrators said.
The largest chunk, $9,966,870, will go to salary increases.
Maximizing financial support from the state - one of "Southern at
150's" few lapses - is a continuing battle, SIU President James Walker
said. Walker spends a significant amount of time keeping in contact
with legislatures.
"When they're in session, it's about daily," Walker said. "And even
when they're not in session, it's going to visit legislatures in their
home districts."
Last year, a national consulting firm returned an evaluation of
"Southern at 150," which found a lack of strategic planning at the
college level as well a low level of communication within the
University were problems holding the plan back.
While administrators respect the findings, Dunn said they spent a
limited time on campus and that a lot of strategic planning is going
on. The office of the provost recently shared a list of accomplishments
with the deans, Dunn said.
One "Southern at 150" goal that is firmly within the administration's
control is stability in leadership and governance. While Wendler has
entertained job offers in the past, he said while he is here, he is
fully committed to making SIUC a place where students can not just get
an education, but become a different, better person.
Reporter Zack Quaintance can be reached at
zack_quaintance@dailyegyptian.com.
