Katie Smith
Staff Reporter
At the moment, McDaniel’s hiring freeze appears to be more of a chill than an actual freeze.
The freeze went into effect in November 2008, when the college revised its budget, according to Dr. Ethan Seidel, vice president of Administration and Finance. Seidel explains that the freeze does not mean that an empty position will not be immediately filled but instead that other options will be explored before a decision is made to hire a new person.
If an employee of the college resigns or retires during the freeze, Seidel says a redistribution of the workload will be implemented where possible, but where that is not possible, the position will be filled.
“The freeze is not frozen solid,” Seidel explains.
Faculty and students are unlikely to feel the effects of the freeze for a while, if at all.
Regarding faculty, Seidel says they are unlikely to be greatly affected for several reasons, the first being that the college sees little faculty turnover. Seidel also says there “tends to be a one-year lag in filling faculty positions that become open.”
He explains the best time to search for a new professor is early in the year. If the search begins later in the year, the best are already hired. However, most faculty members do not tender their resignations until late in the year, so the search for a replacement is usually delayed.
This is the case in the English department, as Dr. Rebecca Davis will leave McDaniel at the end of this semester. Despite the department’s loss, Dr. Leroy Panek, the English department’s acting chair, says the freeze is “not relevant” to him. Panek has full confidence Davis’ position will be filled as soon as possible.
“The president and the provost have made clear that critical people will be replaced,” Panek says.
He adds that a request to hire a new faculty member must be approved by the Academic Planning Committee. If that request is approved, Panek says a national search to fill the position will not begin until 2010. He is confident the request will be approved.
Panek makes clear that this process would be the same with or without a hiring freeze in effect.
Students are not greatly affected by the freeze either.
Sarah Stokely, associate dean of student academic life, says she has not seen any students who have been affected by the hiring freeze, and suspects that if students feel the impact at all, it won’t be until the next academic year.
“If offices on campus or the library are not replacing people, that would affect students,” Stokely says. However, she has not seen this to be true and says she has “seen no negative impact in terms of classes being offered.”
“Students are not really feeling the effects and my hope is that we’re on our way out of a recession,” Stokely says.
(Editor’s Note: This story was initially submitted for Terry Dalton’s Advanced News and Reporting Class).