Sacramento State officials are optimistic that the university will attain the suggested amount of full-time faculty as a nationwide search is conducted for next fall.

“Our hope is that we will know by commencement which searches are completed and which are cancelled,” said David Wagner, vice president for Human Resources.

So far, 13 of the 36 searches have been completed and five have been cancelled. Sixteen still await completion, of which Wagner thought 12 should be filled. This would amount to between 25 and 30 new full-time faculty in the fall.

The reasons why some searches were cancelled cannot be disclosed at this time, but a report investigating those reasons will be released in June or July, Wagner said.

“Typically, about 80 percent of searches are successful,” said Paul Noble, Academic Affairs associate vice president for planning and budget.

Openings are announced in the Higher Education Chronicle, on the Sac State Web site and in various other publications.

Individual departments search in their specific fields, as well.

All of the searches currently being conducted are for full-time faculty. Part-time faculty members are hired in August by the individual departments, Wagner said.

CSU system guidelines suggest that 75 percent of all faculty be full-time, Noble said.In the latter half of the ’90s, Sac State was unable to achieve that percentage. Last fall, however, full-time faculty accounted for 72 percent, and Noble said Sac State could be at the 75 percent goal by next fall if all goes well.

Because of budget uncertainties, this year there were fewer faculty searches than in years past. Last year, there were 40 new hires.

Since fall of 2000, there have been 338 full-time faculty hired at Sac State, Wagner said.The reason so many full-time faculty members are needed is that they perform outside duties in addition to teaching classes.

Full-time faculty members are required to do academic advising and participate in faculty governance.

Part-time faculty members, however, spend more time actually teaching classes, Wagner said.

“Hiring new permanent faculty does not increase or decrease current numbers of classes,” Noble said.

Laurel Heffernan, the associate dean for the College of Natural Sciences and Mathematics, said her college requested five searches for new faculty for the fall. So far, two positions have been filled. The search for new chemistry professors, however, has been cancelled.

If all the searches were successful, it would cost Sac State $500,000, Noble said. The searches are conducted on the assumption that a new full-time faculty member will replace one or more current part-time faculty members.

The average full-time faculty salary is $57,000 per year, Wagner said. This is $2,000 less than the CSU system average, but the systemwide average takes into account schools in Los Angeles, San Francisco and San Diego, where the cost of living is higher than in Sacramento.

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Brandon Darnell can be reached at [email protected]