The College of Liberal Arts has initiated a hiring freeze this year may not hire tenure-track faculty until after fiscal year 1998 because of financial problems, SIUC officials say.

COLA Dean John Jackson said in a memo to the college’s faculty, staff and students that SIUC has lost approximately $1 million from its student tuition income fund due to declining enrollment even though students are paying higher tuition.

A drop of 744 students in 1995’s fall semester created the lack of sufficient funds.

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Jackson said the hiring freeze in COLA this year could last until fiscal year 1998. It is one way to help pay the college’s portion of the debt created by the loss of funds, Jackson said.

Jackson said in the memo that more than half a million dollars could be lost each year until fiscal year 1998 and more than $1 million dollars could be lost over the next three years.

COLA’s estimated loses are $520,000 for fiscal year 1996, $556,000 for fiscal year 1997 and $560,000 for fiscal year 1998, Jackson said.

The first step is putting a hiring freeze in effect, Jackson said.

The hiring freeze could have a negative affect on the students in COLA, Jackson said.

The hiring freeze means a direct impact on the number of faculty to teach next year, Jackson said. This could mean more students per class and less classes being offered to the students.

Jackson said tenure-track faculty are recruited from a national market which offer the cream of the crop to Universities, and the loss of funds means COLA will not be able to recruit any top instructors this year.

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This causes real trouble with the long-term quality of faculty, Jackson said.

He said faculty members hired for only one or two semesters may be possible if COLA gets out of debt after the first year.

Term people (temporary faculty) are important, but tenure-track faculty come and stay and build the University, Jackson said. The faculty are pretty upset at the loss of the ability to hire new tenure-track faculty.

David Werlich, history department chair, said tenure-track faculty offer a better quality of people to choose from because temporary faculty do not have the same experience.

We had a faculty member retire and we wanted to hire a tenure- track person to fill the position, Werlich said. The hiring freeze means we will not be able to do that.

COLA is also facing other fiscal problems. A possible $1 million payback to the Internal Revenue Service, was also mentioned in Jackson’s memo.

Leah Marquard, a tax law specialist for the St. Louis branch of the IRS, could not comment on the payback because she said it is against the law to release that information.

Another problem is a possible Environmental Protection Agency fine levied because of the University’s failure to operate the steam plant in compliance with EPA rules. This may lead to an additional bill SIUC will have to pay, and COLA will have to cut back even more, Jackson said.

SIUC has received notices for violating EPA regulations but no fines have yet been levied.

Rosemarie Cazeau, assistant attorney general representative for SIUC, said there may be some fines demanded at some point, but the amount is not known at the current time. She also said SIUC may not deserve some of the fines.

We don’t believe alleged violations are valid, Cazeau said. No demands for monetary fines have been made.

According to Jackson, other colleges at SIUC have debts but not as great as COLA’s.

Bill Sharp, acting associate dean for the College of Education, said every unit on campus has to give money to the SIUC administration to help alleviate the hole. But so far, the College of Education has no hiring freeze, he said.