President Nemer gives perspective on today’s special Board meeting

Dear UA community,

Eleven months ago, I was appointed president of The University of Akron (UA). On a daily basis, I am humbly honored by the opportunity to lead this campus community, and my passion is enhanced by the promise of an incredibly bright future. As part of my initial months as president, we examined short-term and long-term growth strategies and discovered a need to achieve better alignments of full-time faculty and unit enrollments in numerous departments. That fact coincides with the truth that our faculty is comprised of dynamic scholars who conduct groundbreaking research and career-defining classroom instruction.

Earlier today, the UA Board of Trustees met and took a significant step toward the implementation of the University’s revitalization plan. I am enthusiastic to report the passage of a resolution that will move the institution forward and simultaneously lessen the effect on faculty positions. 

When I initiated the retrenchment process last fall, I was confident we could work together to attain necessary alignments and minimize the impacts on colleagues. Today, I am pleased and encouraged that the Board accepted the slate of recommendations I presented. The approved recommendations were built upon the data-driven ideas presented in the provost’s original proposal and draw inspiration from the creative, sustainable ideas of the Joint Committee on Retrenchment (JCR). These academic decisions afford the University extended flexibility, reduce the impact on faculty, and prepare us to meet our current and future budget improvement plans. The approved solutions will likely eliminate the need for the proposed retrenchment and allow us to move forward with additional individual voluntary separations.

With these campus revitalization and growth initiatives approved on the academic front, we can now move forward with other efforts previously mentioned, such as continuing to trim our real estate footprint, improving the Athletics budget, engaging in conversations to exercise proper stewardship over our facilities, selling underutilized assets, and monetizing others that will assist in reducing expenses and increasing revenue.

I am grateful to the UA Board of Trustees for supporting a rational and sustainable plan for the future of our academics in this time of changing student and market demands. I am additionally thankful to the Office of Academic Affairs for managing this process and to the members of the JCR for soliciting, developing and aggregating great ideas. The Board and I recognize the shared sacrifice of those individual faculty members who have accepted voluntary separation incentive agreements to benefit the University and their colleagues and to avoid the potential retrenchment of junior faculty. Finally, I am indebted to each member of this community for bearing with the administration during the difficult retrenchment proposal process and for believing in the exceptionality and resilience of The University of Akron.

With appreciation for our shared vision,

R.J. Nemer, President