Next year there will be nine more professors on campus, the first step to accommodating the growing student population.
This past year, the freshman class increased in size by 80 to 90 students. The expected increase for next year’s freshman class is around 50 students.
The current average class size is 18 students. Dean of the Faculty John Beckford said Furman could have increased class sizes but that it would have gone against the university’s principles.
“There is a commitment to keeping the student to faculty ratio at 11-1 because Furman doesn’t wish to change the quality of the educational experience,” Beckford said.
Fifteen new positions were required by the GER curriculum change back in 2005. The original plan was to hire five faculty members per year for three years, but this plan changed due to a lack of funding.
The last two positions of the original 15 will be filled for the 2012-2013 academic year. These positions include a Business Finance professor and a Biology professor. These positions will bring additional faculty to the growing Pre-Med and Business departments.
Three tenure-track positions are for Arts Administration, Musicology, and Voice-Lyric Theater professors. These positions will funded in part by an $800,000 dollar grant awarded to Furman by the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation.
Asian Studies is adding two new professors: one Japanese Literacy professor and one new Chinese anthropologist who specializes in media representation and ethnicity. Furman’s new Chinese anthropologist will be the first professor hired to work in only the Asian Studies department.
A part of the Duke Endowment grant will allow Furman to offer four full years of Japanese language study, a Japan May Experience, and a Summer Experience in Japan similar to the Summer China Experience.
Asian Studies department chair Kate Kaup said a goal of the department is to offer more classes for students to take. She said they have had the ideas to create different programs like the Japanese curriculum and now have the faculty to make them happen.
The final two tenure track positions will be for the Biology and Sociology departments. The sociology professor will specialize in urban studies.
Furman has begun budgeting faculty positions for the 2013-14 school year. What these positions are will depend on the size of the student population and the majors students declare.
“Furman is attentive to what students are here for,” Beckford said.
Beckford said the university is looking for the best people in their field and is recruiting internationally.
“The strength of Furman is defined by the strength of the faculty,” he said.
Beckford said that a prospective faculty members need to understand what a liberal arts education is about and have the ability to make connections with students. If they cannot do these things, they will not be hired.
Kaup said prospective faculty need to be “solid scholars” because Furman’s expectations have increased over the last several decades.
All of the top candidates offered jobs at Furman have accepted tenure-track positions. Beckford said this tells Furman that highly qualified people are searching out the university for work.
The administrations is confident in the university’s curriculum but said it needs more FYS classes and new programs for the fine arts.
Furman will assign new faculty unused office space and will repurpose other areas for more office spaces. The continuing education suite behind McAlister Auditorium will be utilized when the Osher Lifelong Learning Institute moves to the Herring Center in the fall.
The teaching window of classes between 8:30 and 5:00 will be optimized for scheduling so that there will not be late classes.
