BY ALICE BROWN
Read the first in the series, “Who Cares about Small Colleges?”
COVID-19 has reduced the autonomy faculty once had to choose their course content and teaching methods. Colleges across the country have reduced retirement benefits, sabbaticals, and tenure appointments to help balance budgets. Faculty are told whether to teach in person or online, and resources from endowments and external grants given to support faculty are being used for other purposes.
I believe faculty are the critical element in the success of any college. Usually, faculty are the ones who attract and keep students. When alums give major donations, it is often because they were positively influenced by faculty, not because they liked the dean or president at their alma mater. When I hear, “They changed my life,” the reference is usually to faculty.
In 1983, I was hired to administer the Appalachian College Program (ACP), housed in the Appalachian Center at the University of Kentucky and funded by grants from the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation. The ACP served faculty at thirty-five private colleges in central Appalachia, where sabbaticals and tenure were nonexistent at some and hard to come by in others; pay was low; teaching loads were high. The ACP provided benefits for faculty that few of the participating colleges could afford. Within a few years, other major contributors were the Pew Charitable Trusts, the Exxon Foundation, the Mary and Barry Bingham Fund, and the National Science Foundation.
Helping those who were helping others (such as disadvantaged students) had great appeal to multiple major donors. Yet, some administrators at the participating colleges saw no reason for faculty to benefit from resources outside their institutions. Some feared the goal of the ACP was to help faculty improve their credentials so they would be more competitive for positions at other colleges.
The ACP provided funding for summer, semester, or year-long fellowships at the University of Kentucky. Recipients could take courses to complete a terminal degree or write dissertations or other publications. Some academic deans from the participating colleges did not encourage faculty to apply for funding from the ACP because when faculty were off campus for a semester or more, the deans had to find replacements.
When a new director of the Appalachian Center complained that the ACP fundraising efforts were in conflict with those of the Center itself, the ACP was moved to the Graduate School at the University of Kentucky and named the Faculty Scholars Program. Fellowships were now available for faculty to work at any major research facility. Graduate deans at the six major research universities in the region (the University of Kentucky, the University of Tennessee, University of Virginia, Virginia Tech, West Virginia University, and the University of North Carolina) became part of the committee that reviewed applications for fellowships along with six academic deans from the participating private colleges. The graduate deans evaluated proposals for their legitimacy in an academic field while the academic deans focused on how projects could benefit home institutions.
New grants were awarded and old ones were renewed. Opportunities for faculty increased until 1991, when a new University of Kentucky president determined the program should not continue receiving in-kind support at a state university since only eight of the thirty-five colleges were in Kentucky.
Presidents of the participating colleges incorporated the Appalachian College Association (ACA) as a nonprofit organization, established an office in Berea, Kentucky, and became the governing board. The presidents who formed the ACA strongly supported the association, but as they left and new presidents became a majority of the board, many thought ACA fundraising efforts conflicted with theirs. As one explained, “These presidents never intended for your endowment to get bigger than theirs.”
When I retired in 2008, the ACA had raised roughly $50 million; $25 million was in an endowment to continue support for faculty, the online library, and research opportunities for students. In a few years, each of the twenty or so foundations and federal agencies that provided the $50 million had been alienated by new ACA leaders. Even Mellon, the major funder throughout my years at ACA, severed their relationship with the ACA when the presidents voted to build an office with $3 million previously awarded by Mellon to support faculty use of technology to share course content across campuses.
For over a decade, various ACA workshops and conferences have continued to provide faculty with opportunities to share strategies and theories related to teaching, but other benefits have evaporated. The Central Library continues but without previous plans for expansion. Fellowships are still available, but graduate deans at the research universities are not involved in selecting recipients, and year-long fellowships no longer exist.
It is hard to know what the ACA is doing. Little information is available on the ACA website, and annual reports once publicly circulated seem no longer to exist. Fellowships are still available for semester or summer research; and annual workshops and conferences continue, but the trustees of the ACA continue to endorse decreases in benefits for faculty. ACA staff have alienated virtually all of the major funding sources. I find the most surprising change is that benefits described by the endowment (such as year-long fellowships) are not being honored. Money intended for faculty can now be used by deans for expenses related to the absence of faculty awarded fellowships despite the fact the college can retain much or all of the salary of a fellowship recipient.
If honoring commitments, being transparent, and cooperating with others are no longer important aspects of small private colleges, what indicators suggest such colleges will survive in the highly competitive world of higher education?
Guest blogger Alice Brown, president emerita for the Appalachian College Association, has written or co-authored 11 articles and five books: How Boards Lead Small Colleges, Staying the Course, Cautionary Tales, and Changing Course. Her most recent book is a memoir: Fifty Million for Faculty and Students: My Fundraising Years.
