Nearly 450 new tenure-system faculty are needed across the University of Illinois System over the next five years to ensure academic quality keeps pace with enrollment that has swelled to record highs for six straight years, a new assessment shows.
The assessment, developed through planning by the each of the system’s three universities, would increase tenure-system faculty by 448, or 14 percent, system-wide, President Tim Killeen told the Board of Trustees at its meeting Thursday in Urbana-Champaign.
Those positions represent just the growth planned the system’s ranks of tenure-track, assistant professors, he said. Including replacements for expected retirements and turnover over the next five years, the assessment calls for a total of 916 tenure-system hires.
Killeen told trustees that faculty hiring has lagged in recent years, particularly during a state budget impasse from 2015-17 that siphoned hundreds of millions of dollars away from day-to-day operations. Meanwhile, he said, system-wide enrollment continues to climb, driven by academic quality and affordability efforts that include an in-state tuition freeze that will be extended to a fifth straight year next fall.
As a result, enrollment is up 10 percent since the fall of 2014 – by nearly 7,500 to almost 86,000 students, setting another system-wide record last fall. But over the same period, tenure-system growth beyond replacements for retirements and turnover was up by only 2 percent, or a net addition of 68 assistant professors.
“In the end, the excellence of our universities hinges squarely on the quality of our students and faculty,” Killeen said. “As we grow one group, we must nourish and grow the other.”
An imbalance between enrollment and faculty growth increases class sizes – reducing the opportunity for individual student attention and threatening their success, he said. As a result, faculty-student ratios are key factors when U.S. News & World Report and other agencies compile their annual rankings of top universities, which influence decisions of prospective students.
Killeen said the hiring assessment was developed by provosts at the U of I System’s three universities, working closely with deans and department heads and in cooperation with Executive Vice President and Vice President for Academic Affairs Barbara Wilson.
The forecasts included a focus on expanding faculty in disciplines where student demand is expected to grow, capitalizing on opportunities to build on each university’s existing strengths and targeting hiring that could add faculty at the intersection of fields – such as healthcare and business or engineering – that hold promise to transform teaching and discovery.
Of the 448 new tenure-system additions envisioned in the assessment, 255 would join the faculty in Chicago, a fast-growing campus that saw enrollment surge to a record 31,000-plus students last fall. In Urbana-Champaign, with record enrollment of nearly 50,000 last fall, 168 tenure-system faculty would be added. Springfield has proposed 25 new tenure-system additions on its smaller, liberal arts campus.
Killeen told the board that system and university leadership will begin work to identify appropriate resources to fund the additional faculty, which he said would amount to tens of millions of dollars annually once all positions are in place.
He said chancellors and provosts are clear that the ambitious hiring goals can only be reached by expanding on current revenues, including tuition, state appropriations and private fundraising.
