UI hiring process ‘expensive’ and ‘time-consuming’
Hiring a new faculty member at the University of Idaho comes with a price tag. According to a report by a University Budget and Finance subcommittee, the costs amount to almost $13,000 on average for a search process and for moving expenses.
“There are real dollars tied to losing people, so I think that’s part of the conversation we should be having,” said Faculty Senate Chair Marty Ytreberg.
The report concluded hiring faculty members is an expensive and time-consuming effort for the university. The report accounted for the identifiable cash costs related to hiring new faculty members, but did not take into account the time spent by faculty and staff members who serve on search committees, said Norman Pendegraft, chair of the University Budget and Finance Committee.
Ytreberg said UI’s faculty turnover rate is double than its peer institutions, a factor that contributes to the number of new hires UI makes.
Elizabeth Brandt, who chaired the subcommittee, said she was taken aback by the amount of turnover in some colleges, and said faculty turnover at UI is a real problem that should be addressed.
“It was startling, and the amount of hires in some colleges like Engineering and Natural Resources were scary high,” Brandt said.
While Faculty Senate members were thankful for the report, some said the real cost of hiring a faculty member was much higher than the report concluded.
“Some of these costs are vastly underestimated,” said James Foster, a biology professor and member of Faculty Senate.
Foster said there are still many questions related to hiring new faculty members, such as how many resources UI loses when an experienced faculty member leaves. He said the report failed to include the costs associated with spousal accommodation and setting up a faculty line for a new professor.
A future report should also include a monetary value associated with the amount of time faculty members spend on search committees, Foster said.
Although Pendegraft agreed faculty members spend a lot of time on search committees, he said it does not physically cost UI anything to have faculty members serve on them. He said the cost is already factored into a faculty member’s salary.
“It’s not costing the university a dime, cause it’s coming out of your hide,” Pendegraft said.
To retain faculty and cut down on search costs, Brandt said there should be a focus on increasing faculty salaries, along with addressing salary compression and inversion.
Ytreberg said Faculty Senate could take some sort of action to address faculty retention through changing the Faculty Staff Handbook. Beyond changing the handbook, he said the senate could communicate with UI administrators to work on a solution.
According to the report, the subcommittee asked UI deans about three different costs related to hiring a new faculty member: search process costs, moving expenses and startup costs.
Brandt said startup costs usually pay for specialized laboratory equipment and summer salaries. She said startup costs heavily depend on which field of study the professor is hired for.
The startup costs for faculty members can range from $2,500 to $600,000, according to the report.
Although the deans took a broad approach in assessing start up needs, Brandt said she anticipates some underestimation with liberal arts and social science departments, since they do not often deal with startup costs.
The report states the average cost of a faculty search is $5,800, while the average moving expenses for faculty members is $7,000.
Ryan Tarinelli can be reached at [email protected]