Posted 7/11/03
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Baylor direction sparks debate
One male assistant professor responding anonymously to the survey wrote: “Baylor must do something to help tenure-track faculty (new hires) cope with the large numbers of tenured senior level professors who do not support the current goals/directions of Baylor–thus do not support those of us brought in to Baylor to fulfill the current mission. There is a serious and negative interaction between new and old faculty in this regard.”
Job satisfaction
Tension between A and B faculty, combined with questions about the wisdom of implementing the 2012 vision, appear to be contributing to a less-than-ideal work environment at Baylor.
The February survey of faculty found only a quarter believe there is a high level of trust within the university. More than half (57 percent) said they disagree with the statement, “I feel there is a high degree of trust within the university.”
Trust levels vary, however, when examined from different angles. Faculty report they are much more likely to trust colleagues within their departments, for example. And new hires are more likely than veteran faculty to express trust in the university as a whole.
Among tenured faculty, the veterans, only 29 percent expressed confidence in the direction the university is going. That compares to 67 percent of tenure-track faculty, which includes the new hires.
An executive summary of the survey published on Baylor's website noted: “All these elements point to challenging circumstances for both faculty and administration. Many tenured faculty do not have confidence with the direction of change and are feeling undervalued. A clash of cultures is evident among A and B faculty. At the department level, this situation is better but potentially divisive as tenure-track faculty fear conflict and promotional difficulty because of their alignment with senior administration. These factors present extremely demanding situations for department chairs, who must manage the culture change on the local level.”
Sloan said he was not surprised to learn faculty expressed more confidence in those they work more closely with than with senior administration. On this point, the survey “gave what anyone would expect,” he said.
Regarding the low levels of overall trust for the university found among faculty, Sloan said, Baylor has little comparative data from other universities. Baylor is only the third university he knows of that has conducted such a survey.
“It may be that our numbers are good compared to other universities,” he reasoned. “We just don't know.”
At the least, Sloan said, Baylor should get credit for undertaking the survey. “I'm very proud of Baylor for being willing to do that.”
President from within
An irony of the tension between the president and faculty is that Sloan himself rose to leadership from the faculty ranks–and he was championed by some of the regents who now are his harshest critics.
In 1995, Herbert Reynolds announced his intention to retire from the presidency at the conclusion of the 1995-1996 academic year. In November 1995, the regents' presidential search committee brought a candidate to the full board for consideration. However, after two days of meetings, the regents adjourned without taking action on the nomination of Tom Corts, president of Samford University in Birmingham, Ala.
By some accounts at the time, Corts did not gain the full support of the board because he had no Texas ties and was not a Baylor graduate. Some faculty also opposed his hiring.
Three months later, the Baylor regents met again as a committee of the whole and interviewed five candidates, settling on Sloan as their choice by a narrow vote on the second day.
Two of Sloan's foremost advocates were Jaclanel McFarland, the regent now under investigation, and John Wilkerson of Lubbock, immediate past chairman of the board and a strong critic of Baylor's current direction.
Were it not for Wilkerson and McFarland, Sloan perhaps would not be president of Baylor today.
Donations to Baylor |
| 2003 | $46,077,000 |
| 2002 | $41,327,000 |
| 2001 | $52,927,000 |
| 2000 | $57,661,000 |
| 1999 | $41,483,000 |
| 1998 | $34,381,000 |
| 1997 | $59,173,000 |
| 1996 | $19,093,000 |
| 1995 | $23,644,000 |
| 1994 | $28,754,000 |
| 1993 | $18,932,000 |
Sloan came to the presidency from Baylor's Truett Seminary, where he served as founding dean after 10 years of teaching in the university's religion department. Prior to that, he taught at Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary in Fort Worth and Hardin-Simmons University in Abilene.
According to his biographical information provided by the university, Sloan “has authored two books, assisted with editing of several books and published more than 50 articles and chapters for scholarly or ecumenical journals and publications.”
Asked if he could meet the criteria for hiring as a Baylor professor today, Sloan responded affirmatively.
“I think I could be hired,” he said. “I think I have the academic credentials, and I have the research record and commitment to teaching and a love for a place like this.”
Bricks and mortar
Baylor 2012 calls not only for building faculty but for building buildings. Foremost among them is a four-story, 500,000-square-foot facility to provide classrooms, laboratories and faculty offices for science studies. The building plans also include parking garages, recreational facilities and number of residential buildings.
Baylor has not added any new student housing in nearly 40 years, meaning only freshmen normally live on campus. A component of the 2012 vision is to increase a sense of campus community by adding 1,800 new beds in on-campus housing.
All the construction comes with a price tag, and that has created another swirl of concern.
Last year, the Baylor regents approved a $246 million bond issue, combining $56 million in existing debt with $190 million in debt. The bulk of the new funds, $105 million, will pay for the science building, currently under construction.
“The debt is tremendously worrisome, unprecedented in Baylor's history,” Prichard said. “I was on the board when we voted to proceed with the … science building. The plan was to start even without funding but to raise the money through foundations. However, that has been singularly unsuccessful.”
Acquiring the debt may be water under the bridge now, but it could prove to be treacherous water unless more donors sail to Baylor's rescue, Prichard predicted. “Baylor could reverse everything, fire Robert, elect new regents, but the debt remains. It's about 50 percent of the endowment. Barring a $100 million gift to pay for the science building, any administration is going to be saddled with the debt for years to come.”
Sloan views the debt from a different perspective, not in relation to endowment but in relation to annual budget. From that vantage, he said, the debt isn't nearly such a threat. It is, instead, a properly used tool to advance the university's mission.
“Families and businesses and institutions of higher learning and churches regularly use debt to forward their mission,” Sloan said. While Baylor historically has not taken on major debt, the time was right to do so now, he added, explaining that Baylor entered the bond market “at an all-time historic low” and borrowed far less than it could have.
The blended rate of the bond issue is 3.8 percent, he said.
“We spend the grand total of 4.7 percent of our operating budget on debt retirement. I suspect the average Baptist family would love to have a house mortgage and credit cards, car loans and everything else add up to 4.7 percent of their monthly budget.”
Baylor had to move forward with the science building to remain competitive in recruiting students, he said, explaining that the current science buildings were constructed in the mid-1960s.
“We've had students come to campus and look at our science buildings and say, 'I had better laboratories at my high school,'” he said.
The flipside of Baylor entering the bond market at all-time low interest rates is that Baylor has taken on major capital projects at a time when donations are drying up due to the sagging stock market.
The 2012 vision calls for increasing the university's endowment from $645 million to $2 billion. Yet donations to Baylor have been on a downward trend in recent years rather than an upward trend.
The high point in Baylor's fund-raising efforts came in 1997, when donors gave $59.2 million. Donations swung up and down for the next few years, cresting again at $57.7 million in 2000, two years before the 2012 vision was launched.
The next year, donations dipped to $52.9 million, then $41.3 million and settled at $46.1 million for the academic year just ended.
Sloan acknowledged the nation's economic downturn has hurt fund raising. However, for Baylor to raise more than $40 million in a bad economy is a positive sign, he said.
“Fund raising is going very well,” Sloan said, adding that the current campaign to raise $500 million by 2005 has secured cash and pledges of $444 million.
Tuition
All financial discussions at Baylor these days ultimately lead to tuition, however. The new tuition structure implemented through Baylor 2012 lights up alumni critics more than anything else.
Beginning in the fall of 2002, Baylor adopted a flat-rate tuition rather than charging based on the number of semester hours a student takes. That rate started out at $15,700 per year–a 29 percent jump from what had been charged for a typical course load–and now stands at $17,200 per year.
Tuition is projected to continue increasing 6.8 percent annually through 2012, meaning it could top $30,000 per year for the entering class of 2012.
Alumni and other critics believe this makes Baylor inaccessible to average Texas Baptist families.
“Baylor used to be one of the most affordable major universities in the nation, but it's now tied with Rice as the second (to SMU) most expensive school in the state,” said Miller, the Highland Park high school teacher. “Baylor has been one of the state's biggest producers of teachers, which are chronically short in supply. I wonder how many future teachers will be able to afford the level of debt they will have to incur now to attend Baylor. And how many children from Texas Baptist families headed by teachers or pastors or small-businessmen will still be able to afford a Baylor education?”
According to Sloan and other Baylor administrators, the tuition increase actually has made Baylor more accessible to middle-class students and Baptist students than before.
Although the cost of tuition has increased, the amount of financial aid offered also has increased. Prospective students should not be scared off by the “sticker price” of a Baylor education, Sloan said, but should find out what the actual cost would be for them.
“Because of the increased amount of financial aid available, the out-of-pocket issue is the real issue. … What people really want to know is, 'What does it cost me?'”
Despite perceptions to the contrary, “Baylor is more accessible to the middle class today than it was three years ago,” Sloan said. “I know that may be counter-intuitive, but those are the facts.”
The unspoken math behind this equation is that charging a higher price to students who are able to pay it allows the university to more deeply subsidize the cost for students who are not able to pay the full price.
This is a “longstanding practice” in higher education, Sloan said. “We give scholarships not only out of our endowment, but we also give scholarships out of our operating budget.”
According to statistics provided by Baylor, the average and median household incomes of entering freshmen have dropped over the past two years. That data is based on financial aid forms, however, meaning students from families who are able to pay the full tuition are not counted.
Baylor spokesman Larry Brumley, acting vice president for university relations, said leaving off those “full pays,” which numbered 521 last year, should not significantly skew the analysis. The number of full pays actually decreased last year, while need-based financial aid increased, he said.
Comparatively, Baylor is the highest-priced Baptist school in Texas but it's still cheaper than the average second-tier private school in the United States, Sloan said.
He sells it as a value. “Right now, you're getting a middle to top second-tier education for a below-average second-tier price,” he said, explaining that the average tuition for a second-tier private university is $27,000, compared to Baylor's $17,200.
Baylor's tuition also remains lower than other leading private schools in Texas, including Rice, SMU, TCU and Trinity, he said. “We're a great value. We have been. We still are.”
Recruiting freshmen
A key to making the annual budget goals at Baylor, however, is bringing in freshmen and transfer students each year. With the carefully crafted tuition increases slated to make the 2012 vision a reality, meeting enrollment goals has become vital.
Baylor's support staff members have been told they may not receive salary increases this year if new-student enrollment falls short in September.
Last year, Baylor missed its goal for incoming students by about 225, or about 8 percent, Sloan acknowledged. That represents several million dollars in lost tuition income.
Because students who were enrolled at Baylor before the flat tuition was introduced were grandfathered in, bringing in new students each year at the higher tuition rate provides a greater financial boost to the university.
Critics question why Baylor appears to be having trouble recruiting enough freshmen if the university is in fact more accessible to average families than before.
Anecdotal evidence abounds from critics, alumni and other observers to indicate the higher sticker price at Baylor shuts the door on consideration early on.
An alumnus quoted without attribution in Miller's compendium of comments sent to regents wrote: “Several students in our congregation, previously destined for Baylor, have had to change their plans because of the prohibitive new tuition. Our pastor is suggesting they investigate several of the other Texas Baptist colleges and universities.”
“In my church, families are not looking at Baylor because of the costs,” said Prichard, who attends First Baptist Church of Corpus Christi. “The emotional tie between Baylor and Texas Baptists is weaker than ever before.”
Sloan insists the tuition is not driving students away from Baylor. “We had enough applicants last year to have made our class,” he said. “But we didn't. We missed for operational reasons.”
This year's entering class looks more promising, he said.
Brumley confirmed that deposits have been received from 2,789 potential freshmen, slightly over the budget goal of 2,775 freshmen. Baylor's admissions office has a goal of 2,800 freshmen for this fall.
Recruitment of transfer students is still lagging, however, with deposits from 368 toward a budget goal of 500.
Some faculty have expressed concern that to get freshmen numbers up to the budgeted levels, the university has loosened its admissions standards by taking in record numbers of what insiders call “special admits” or “challenge students.”
Weaver said at least 15 percent of the incoming freshman class will be challenge students, a trend he and others view as running counter to Baylor's quest to achieve tier one status.
According to critics, this is the point at which Baylor's debt overrides its ability to be selective.
“Baylor has become so tuition-dependent that tuition is needed to pay the debt,” Prichard said.
Physics professor Don Hardcastle recently explained to the Waco Tribune-Herald that it now takes the tuition of 900 students to pay the university's debt service.
Sloan pointed to an increase in average SAT scores among Baylor freshmen as an indicator that the student body is getting brighter, however.
The average SAT score has increased from about 1140 to about 1180, he said. While the university doesn't have a published threshold of required SAT scores for admittance, the average scores have risen by increasing the pool of applicants to Baylor, he said.
“The more people apply, the greater the demand,” he explained. “That tends to raise” the SAT scores.
Financial status
Despite the growth and building and changes at Baylor, the university remains in excellent financial health, Sloan said. “We're just closing the books on our fiscal year, and for the 34th year in a row, Baylor finishes in the black. We have a strong, not huge, but strong surplus.”
Chief Financial Officer David Brooks likewise assessed the university as fiscally healthy.
Baylor's internal operating budget ended the 2001-2002 academic year with a $2.8 million surplus, he said, and the 2002-2003 year closed May 31 with a $1.35 million surplus.
The operating budget is an internal document that is not published or made available for outside review to anyone other than auditors and the board of regents. Brooks said the operating budget encompasses the actual income and expenses of running the university, excluding gifts to endowment and capital projects funded outside the operating budget.
According to Baylor's audited financial statements for the 2001-2002 academic year, which are published, the university experienced a $33.4 million increase in net assets before adjustments required by generally accepted accounting standards and a $46.3 million decrease in net assets after adjustments.
The financial statements show the bulk of that loss was due to a $62.67 million decrease in market value of investments.
Brooks acknowledged that Baylor, like all universities and non-profits with endowments, has suffered major losses on investments in recent years. However, investment income was turning around near the end of the fiscal year just ended, he said, with Baylor's endowment gaining $55 million in value in April and May.
The total market value of Baylor's endowment currently stands at about $586 million, he said.
Alumni association
Baylor also has a wealth of alumni–more than 100,000 living. Many of those alumni are fiercely loyal to their alma mater, as is shown by their free-flowing critique of the administration.
However, as part of Baylor 2012, the administration set about to more regularly and directly communicate with that alumni base by creating a new alumni services division.
That was seen by Sloan's critics as a slap at the Baylor Alumni Association, an autonomous body with 25,000 dues-paying members.
University officials said they wanted to reach all alumni. Some leaders of the Baylor Alumni Association said the administration wanted to run the independent group out of business.
Under terms of an agreement recently signed by the Alumni Association and the university, the Alumni Association will continue to perform several duties, including publishing its magazine, the Baylor Line.
However, the association has lost $350,000 in annual funding from the university–money that has been diverted to the university's own alumni services work, which includes Baylor magazine, mailed to all alumni.
To Sloan's critics, this is further evidence of the administration's attempts at control. To Sloan's defenders, it was a logical step to strengthen the university's direct communication with alumni.
With that as a backdrop, several hundred alumni are expected for the July 18 “Baylor family dialogue” to be held at the Hughes-Dillard Alumni Center on campus. The event originally was scheduled as an alumni rally at the Waco Convention Center, designed to demonstrate the number of concerned alumni.
“They dismiss the complainers as a small group of disgruntled Baylorites,” explained Miller. “We want them to realize we're not a small group, that we represent a substantial number of people.”
Sloan said he plans to attend the dialogue, which will be streamed live on the Internet through the university's website. “We're not afraid of the facts,” he said.
The event will begin at 2 p.m. A news release from the Alumni Association bills it as “an event of substance and candid conversation.”
Todd Copeland, editor of the Baylor Line, said the Alumni Association stepped in to sponsor the dialogue in hopes of building bridges with all Baylor constituencies. “We hope to demonstrate the value of the independence we have fought to maintain,” he said.
The dialogue is open to all who are interested, he said.
Does tier-one status matter?
Baylor 2012 and its implementation no doubt will be a major topic of discussion at the alumni event.
Miller said she, for one, would like the university to reassess the 2012 vision.
“I'm not sure Baylor needs to worry about being on any magazine's list,” she said. “The university may have to sacrifice too much on the altar of the top tier and will be diverted from its longstanding mission of serving Texans and Baptists. I don't want to be a Protestant Notre Dame. I just want Baylor to go on being Baylor.”
Indeed, what Baylor was and is stands at the center of the current debate.
“I believe the growing divisiveness in the Baylor family today transcends any one person or any temporal administration and goes to the heart of what Baylor University is about, has been about and should be about in the future,” explained Gilbreath in one of his essays.
The administration and its critics seem to agree wholeheartedly on this point.
Brumley summarized the debate in one sentence: “This is a struggle for the heart and soul of the university.”
See previous page of Baylor article here.
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