College Considers Working Overtime to Ease Financial Strain

Facing $4.5 million in budget cuts, Kean University in New Jersey is seriously considering “working overtime” by extending its academic week to Fridays and Saturdays, according to an Inside Higher Ed article (“Solution To Financial Woes: More Classes?” May 7, 2008).

The proposed solution is one of several being considered as the school faces a potential 17-to-24-percent tuition hike next year. It would offer tuition discounts for students who take classes on those days to help keep the tuition increase to a single digit figure.

Kean University officials say the proposal would allow the school to better use the classrooms the administration already pays to operate seven days a week. They estimate that on Fridays alone only 13 percent of general-purpose classrooms are being used at any given time.

But not everyone is happy about the proposal.

In fact, Kenneth Sanders, associate provost for academic affairs, says that many professors are wary of the changes. He also admits that the response to professors being asked to work overtime on Fridays and Saturdays has been “mixed.”

Critics of the plan claim that neither students nor faculty were consulted during the process, a pattern that has emerged before at the school under similar circumstances.

Share this post: email this | del.icio.us | reddit