BGSU faculty group blasts Mazey for planned cuts

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File photo. BGSU president Dr. Mary Ellen Mazey makes her way to the stage during a
commencement ceremony at the Stroh Center in Bowling Green Ohio on December 15, 2012. (Photo: Enoch
Wu/Sentinel-Tribune)

The Bowling Green State
University Faculty Association this morningsuggested that senior faculty, faculty senators and other
campus leaders“publicly call for an end to the tyrannical incompetence of the(President Mary Ellen)
Mazey and (Provost Rodney) Rogersadministration.”BGSU-FA was responding to a late Friday afternoon
confirmation by Mazeyof plans to reduce faculty employment by 100 by the start of fallsemester in
August. Rogers apparently talked about the issue earlierlast week during a meeting of the BGSU Faculty
Senate.The university and BGSU-FA are in their second year of negotiations for a first contract for
faculty.The statement says Mazey “offered the disingenuous claim that thesepositions will come from
attrition, retirements and the expiration ofsome one-year teaching contracts.”BGSU-FA claims that chairs
and directors were given a list of non-tenuretrack faculty whose contracts end this academic year and
told toidentify faculty to cut. “This mass termination is indicative of theMazey administration’s lack
of long-term vision and its continuouslysubpar top-down management.”The union says the result will
increase the student-to-faculty ratio,class sizes will increase and the variety of classes decline.
“DespiteMazey’s marketing team’s spin to the contrary, students’ educationalexperience at BGSU will be
diminished greatly,” the statement claims.The university said Friday the move would save $5.2 million
that can bedirected to other priorities, including competitive salaries for facultyand staff.BGSU-FA
claims the latest administration salary and benefits proposals,when added up, do not cost BGSU any more
than it pays out now to facultyand that BGSU faculty compensation will remain second to the bottom
ascompared to other public Ohio institutions.“But the $5.2-million savings is suspiciously close to the
$5 millionnumber that BGSU officials have floated as the loss from state share ofinstruction under
Ohio’s new funding plan,” the statement indicates. “Inother words, Mazey may have decided that faculty
alone should absorbany budgetary challenges. It’s certainly easier than cutting
six-figureadministrators, in-the-red athletics, expensive residence halls,luxurious renovations to the
rec center, high-priced outsideconsultants, failed football bowl games, or Mazey’s team of spindoctors
which, as Mazey administration spending indicates, are her truepriorities.”The statement alleges the
administration has “no intelligent strategyfor handling the new state funding model or for recruiting
students” andhas made no efforts to address faculty pay or cost-of-livingadjustments.

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