Like much of America, CSUS is facing a greying of the faculty. Within the next five years, CSUS is facing the possible retirement of large percentages of the faculty. The demographics in terms of age show that a high number of the CSUS faculty are nearing the age where they will be eligible to retire, according to David Wagner, dean of Faculty ad Staff Affairs. While exact numbers aren’t available for the university as a whole, a sample survey of departments give a scary picture. Val Smith, Chair of Communication Studies, has 23 out of ____ faculty who will be eligible for retirement within the next few years, a percentage of _____. The School of Nursing has 8 out of 22, ____%, according to Chair Robyn Nelson. And Management Information Science could lose ____ % of its faculty, Thomas Sandman, Chair, says. What this means for students, Wagner said, is that there may be far more reliance on part timers, at least in the interim. Smith agrees. “The university needs to begin hiring junior faculty now,” he said, or there will be major disruptions in services to students. He was quick to point out that part time does not mean inferior teaching quality. “Comm Studies has excellent part time teachers,” he said. But tenure requires a doctorate level education, and many part timers don’t have that. Also, part timers often have other jobs, and full-time teaching isn’t one of their career goals. The impact on nursing students will be much greater, Nelson said. “In this discipline, we have master’s level clinicians who can step in, which will not diminish the quality of the clinical experience at all. But right now we are having trouble recruiting qualified personnel at the salaries we offer.” A competent practitioner can make $80,000 per year, she said, and the university system just can’t match or beat it. If the MA clinicians take on a full-time teaching position, they will be required to get their doctorate. “They won’t be available for committee work, etc., because of the added stress of going to school.” Wagner said that CSUS is aware of the potential crisis, and has been preparing for it for years. “The departments and colleges prepared hiring plans a couple of years ago,” he said. These are updated periodically. In terms of possible curriculum gaps, Wagner sees some benefits to having a large number of faculty retire. “Departments will have the opportunity to change the discipline or major, to add new things which we couldn’t do before with a stable faculty.” It will also allow departments to develop new focuses and emphasize recent developments within disciplines. “It would not mean that majors would go away,” he said, but it will enable the departments to take advantage of new ideas and directions. “We can hire young Ph.D.’s where issues are being made,” he said. Smith also sees the situation as a benefit for the university and its students. “Just replacing senior faculty-full professors at the top step with extensive salary-with junior faculty saves the university lots of money.” Both Smith and Wagner were quick to point out that just because a professor is eligible for retirement, doesn’t mean he or she necessarily will. Many take advantage of the Faculty Early Retirement Plan. The FERP allows the professor to take on half a load, teaching full time for one semester or half-time for two semesters. The advantage of this program is easy to see, according to Wagner. “The professor is not gone from campus, so is available for teaching, advising and committee work. The knowledge and the expertise is still here.” But Nelson isn’t as optimistic. Throughout the state, she says, nursing is in crisis with attracting and filling positions. “We’re in a position of needing to increase enrollment at a time when our faculty are greying,” she said. If the school can’t fill the teaching slots, then it cannot attract an adequate number of students to alleviate the crisis facing the state. And then there’s the affect on accreditation. Nelson believes too high a reliance on part timers will affect how the accrediting body evaluates the school. And a low percentage of doctorate holders puts high pressure on master’s-holding faculty. “They aren’t available for committee work, university service, research and community service.” A program that relies too heavily on part-timers or MA clinicians will have a harder time attracting doctorate level instructors, she believes. The Faculty Senate also looks at the reliance on part time faculty. The Academic Affairs committee, when performing Program Reviews, looks at the way part time staff is being used and how it affects the program, said Bob Buckley, Chair of the Faculty Senate. In the worst case scenario, Smith said, if all the eligible faculty retire at once, there will be a major disruption in providing service to the students. “We might have a hard time offering classes,” he said. He also believes that relying on part timers without doctorates will lower the prestige of the university. It takes at least a year to recruit and hire a full-time tenure track professor. Interim part timers will be utilized, but they will not necessarily be guaranteed to fill the empty slots. Smith said it goes back to the issue of doctorate. “A full time position requires a Ph.D., and many part timers don’t have them.” Wagner says the current part time faculty are able to be considered for the positions, but the university searches nationally for faculty, so they would be competing with many other candidates. But, he said, in a number of instances, the university finds that the existing part time faculty is the most qualified person for the job.