Millington blamed for biology staff woes

By Sara Brady
Flat Hat News Editor

Three biology faculty positions remain vacant at the start of classes due to two retirements and a professor on research leave. The biology department invited three applicants to campus last spring, however, all three declined offers of employment.

According to an article in The Virginian-Pilot that appeared Monday, President Timothy Sullivan compared Millington Hall to "something out of post-war Poland," and blamed the deficit in faculty on the condition of the biology and psychology buildings. Additionally, Sullivan blamed the budget stalemate in the commonwealth, which froze a $20 million renovation project of Millington, and also prevented faculty from receiving annual pay raises.

"We're accustomed to having the first choice [candidates] accept the job," professor Lawrence Wiseman, chairman of the biology department, said. "It's difficult, especially in the sciences, to be a new faculty member when you're not sure you'll have a laboratory for your students to use, not knowing if you'll be sent to another building."

COURTESY PHOTO -- Biology Dept. Bruce Grant Biology Professor Emeritus

The process of hiring faculty who have the potential to become tenured takes up to a year, Wiseman said. Last fall, anticipating the spring 2001 retirements of professors Bruce Grant and Martin Mathes, the biology department formed a search committee and began interviewing applicants. The committee invited the top three applicants to visit the College and presented terms of employment. All three turned down the offer after visiting.

The condition of Millington Hall has been a problem for several years, affecting two of the College's largest undergraduate populations. Biology and psychology majors together make up 22 percent of the College's undergraduates; individually, those two concentrations account for more students than any field but the business school.

Millington's leaking roofs and undersized classrooms and laboratories have come under fire in recent years as reasons for students and faculty alike to choose other institutions.

"Its [Millington's] shabbiness and the fact that the money to renovate and add onto it was taken away was most likely a deciding factor for those three professors," Wiseman said.

According to Wiseman, three biology faculty were on leave last academic year, as compared to one on research leave for the full 2001-2002 year and one conducting research throughout the spring semester. One of the professors emeritus who retired last spring will also teach a class to help fill the void.

Wiseman said that the current biology faculty will be affected most by the vacancies, in terms of filling the demand for teaching classes and labs and advising students.

"I don't think it's going to affect the students too much," he said. "Who it'll affect the most is the remaining faculty, with teaching the writing requirement and advising. Since we're the largest major, we have lots and lots of students; we need enough faculty. If we're not able to hire people that's a bad sign."

The high standards to which the College holds its faculty are partially responsible for the lingering vacancies, according to Wiseman.

"If we would've been willing to hire people we didn't think could really do the kind of job we're used to having on our faculty, we could have done it," he said. "But we have really high standards, and we're used to having the best on our faculty."

The November gubernatorial election will likely have an impact on higher education statewide. Gov. James Gilmore will present his budget for the 2002-2004 biennium to the General Assembly before he leaves office. However, Gilmore's successor, either Republican Mark Earley or Democrat Mark Warner, will have control over the budget after taking office.

According to The Virginian-Pilot, both Earley and Warner, have promised $1 billion for Virginia higher education, to be used for construction and renovation. Warner has stated publicly that he is committed to sustaining the freeze on in-state tuition while weighing the needs of higher education against public education and the car tax repeal, among other things. Earley has said he will review the tuition freeze.