Newsgroups: bit.listserv.mbu-l
Date:         Sun, 4 Oct 1992 08:03:45 CDT
From:         "(McDonald James C)" <jcm5337@USL.EDU>
Subject:      Wyoming Resolution

I just returned from the Louisiana Association for College Composition Confer-
ence, and we had our annual session on the Wyoming Resolution.  We've been
holding these sessions since 1989, where we discuss where we are in the state
and what we should do.  I thought I'd share what we discusses and the actions
we took with MBU and PURTOPOI.
  The conference took place one day after a $45,000,000 cut in higher education
went into effect--a cut of 7.25%.  LSU at Baton Rouge received the biggest
cut, over 9 million.  My university, the University of Southwestern Louisiana,
was cut 3.25 million or thereabouts.  The state is facing a revenue shortfall of
well over $600,000,000 in the fall, and as things stand now, higher education
will have to absorb almost half of the budget cuts--health care and higher
education are the only parts of the state budget that are not protected from
cuts by federal mandate or the state constitution.  Higher education hasn't
really recovered from big cuts in the mid-1980s when the price of oil dropped
drastically.  So we're down to the bone and now the marrow is being sucked.
The University of New Orleans, for example, no longer is having mail delivered
to departments to save money.
  Most departments reported that their programs have not been affected by the
cuts much yet.  Class sizes remain the same--28 in freshman classes in most
universities.  Northwestern State went up to 30.  Smaller institutions and the
Southern University system, where class sizes range from the mid-30s to the
high 40s or low 50s, weren't represented by the faculty who came to the session,
so we don't know what the situation is now.  I will be conducting a survey of
conditions for writing faculty for LACC later this year.  The U of New Orleans
had announced that they would let all the adjuncts go because of the budget
crisis, but the English department got UNO to reverse that decision, using the
fact that adjuncts receive the equivalent of one-fourth the pay per course that
full-time faculty make to show that the savings would be miniscule.  UNO is
holding comp classes to 25 so far--it helps that everyone in the department
teaches composition and has a stake in what happens to the writing program.
Part-time faculty at Delgado Community College did not receive raises.  Along
with Northwestern part-time faculty (I believe), they are the lowest paid
writing faculty in the state at $900 a course.  Full-time temporary faculty at
Delgado are moving into tenure-line positions after two or three years,
if they are evaluated as good teachers.  This is a recent development.  The
number of adjuncts at Southwestern Louisiana jumped from 12 to 22 this year; the
Faculty Senate at USL is investigating the adjunct situation across campus.
At most schools the full-time teaching load remains 15 hours per semester--
LSU-Alexandria faculty are permitted to teach an 18-hour overload for extra pay,
and several do.
  Part of the reason I am posting this is because we want to publicize the
conditions here--Delgado faculty said, "Please embarrass us"--to argue that
the reputation of Louisiana institutions is damaged by these conditions.
  I'll state the actions we took and suggested in a separate post.
     Jim McDonald
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