Spring Break
Gates addresses Faculty Senate on restructuring plans, tuition
By: Aerin Toussaint
Issue date: 3/2/04 Section: News
Members of the Texas A&M Faculty Senate said Monday that A&M University President Robert M. Gates has some effective ideas for A&M's future, but some members remain skeptical on how the ideas would help the University.
Gates addressed proposals on tuition, administrative restructuring and the faculty reinvestment plan.
Gates said the administrative restructuring proposal is still in the early stages of draft and discussion. Restructuring will reorganize the administrative portion of the University, making management more efficient and more cost-effective,Gates said.
One of the major proposed changes is to move business venues such as Reed Arena, Rudder Theater and the Memorial Student Center Hotel, to management under the Department of Finance for better accountability and cost savings.
Gates said no layoffs are planned in the proposed restructuring.
The University plans to hire 101 new faculty every fiscal year until 2007, to bring the total of new hires to 447. This faculty reinvestment program hopes to bring the student-to-faculty ratio down from 22:1 to 16:1, Gates said.
"We have the opportunity to make an enormous difference in the future of the University through these hires," Gates said. "A more diverse faculty will help lead to a more diverse student body."
Martyn Gunn, secretary-treasurer of the Faculty Senate and a professor of biochemistry, said he supports Gates's faculty reinvestment plan because it is a method of recruiting minority students without putting a face on
race.
"Every student deserves to be here based on merit, not on the color of their skin," Gunn said.
David Myers, an English professor at A&M, said he is skeptical of the faculty reinvestment plan because it does not lay out a clear plan on how to improve teaching.
"Gates wants to increase the quality of teaching by increasing the number of professors, but it doesn't naturally follow that smaller classes mean quality classes," Myers said.
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