Budget crisis? What budget crisis? Haas hiring a whopping 6 new faculty

Colleges & Universities University of California - Berkeley
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<p>The news regarding Berkeley over the last year has been dominated by an [unprecedented[/url</a>] budget crisis that has precipitated [url=<a href=“http://sfappeal.com/news/2011/01/uc-berkeley-150-layoffs-a-last-resort.php]layoffs[/url”>UC Berkeley: 150 Layoffs "a last resort" | SF Appeal: San Francisco's Online Newspaper]layoffs[/url</a>], double-digit annual percentage fee [url=<a href=“http://articles.latimes.com/2011/sep/15/local/la-me-0915-uc-plan-20110915]hikes[/url”>UC plan sees tuition rising up to 16% annually over four years]hikes[/url</a>] for the foreseeable future, and apparently even [url=<a href="http://www.kabc.com/Article.asp?id=2408478&spid=38628]“People”&gt;http://www.kabc.com/Article.asp?id=2408478&spid=38628]"People&lt;/a&gt; leaving the financial aid office in tears because they realize they aren’t going to have, to be able to afford an education](<a href=“http://www.bizjournals.com/sanfrancisco/stories/2009/03/09/daily29.html?page=all]unprecedented[/url”>http://www.bizjournals.com/sanfrancisco/stories/2009/03/09/daily29.html?page=all). Indeed, some recent reports have indicated that, for many students, Berkeley may now actually be [more</a> expensive](<a href=“HuffPost - Breaking News, U.S. and World News | HuffPost”>Harvard And Yale Now Less Costly Than Public California Universities | HuffPost College) than are the top private universities.</p>

<p>But apparently somebody forgot to tell the Haas School that Berkeley is in crisis, for not only are they planning a [campus</a> expansion](<a href=“http://www.dailycal.org/2012/02/28/haas-plans-70-million-expansion/]campus”>http://www.dailycal.org/2012/02/28/haas-plans-70-million-expansion/), but apparently they’re also planning to hire a whopping [url=<a href=“https://recruitment.haas.berkeley.edu/Posting/JobDescription.aspx]six[/url”>https://recruitment.haas.berkeley.edu/Posting/JobDescription.aspx]six[/url</a>] tenure-track or tenured new faculty. </p>

<p>To put that in perspective, that surely makes Berkeley one of the most prolific recruiters of all of the top business schools in the world, as a percentage of its size (as Haas is a relatively small business school). And business school faculty are far from cheap. Since the job spec stated that Haas is hiring both tenure-track and fully-tenured (and hence senior) faculty, that must mean that the average yearly cost is likely in the $250k-350k range for each new hire, including research budget and benefits. For example, according to the publicly available state employee salary datasets, Shai Levi makes over $200k in just salary alone, not even including his research budget and benefits, and he’s just an assistant professor and therefore not even tenured. (And to be perfectly honest, his research record isn’t particularly stellar, with not even a single publication in an A-level journal in his field, even after being an asst professor for 7 years). </p>

<p>And note, for those who might pose the counterargument that the Haas expansion may be driving the new hiring, I would argue that this is unlikely. The expansion has yet to be formally confirmed, but rather is contingent upon the securing of funding, which I hope will happen but might not. On the other hand, the hiring of faculty, and especially of tenured faculty represents a long-term commitment. The hiring of tenured faculty is basically a lifetime employment guarantee. Even the hiring of untenured junior faculty generally requires the signing of an employment contract committing to that person for at least a few years until they reach their first job-review checkpoint. It is generally considered extremely poor form for a top research university such as Berkeley to hire new tenure-track faculty only to immediately dispose of them before they even hit their checkpoint. </p>

<p>More importantly, even if the Haas campus expansion does occur, it’s not clear whether that would necessarily involve an expansion in the number of Haas students It might, it might not. If the number of students doesn’t expand, then it’s not clear why the number of faculty needs to expand. But even if the expansion does occur and would precipitate an increase in the number of students, the fact remains that the expansion and resulting increase in students would take years to complete. I could understand why afterwards, Haas would hire lots more faculty. But why now? Why before the expansion is even confirmed? </p>

<p>The deep irony of the situation is that Berkeley’s budget crisis was precipitated by a financial crash that, frankly, was largely engineered by MBA’s and business school professors (especially finance professors). Yet clearly the Haas School has emerged from this crash smelling like a rose, even as the rest of the university is under siege. For that reason, I’ve never understood why the Occupy Cal movement chose to take over Sproul. If any part of Cal ought to have been ‘occupied’ as the progenitors of the 1%, it’s the Haas School. And not just any part of the Haas School, but specifically that portion that caters to the finance industry. </p>

<p>But in any case, perhaps the moral of the story is that students should try to get into Haas, as they are one of the few divisions of Berkeley that apparently still enjoys luxurious amounts of funding.</p>

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<p>yay, go haas!</p>

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<p>So I was considering that what you were saying has a little merit, but the closer I got to the end, more I realized, oh great, another “1%” zealot. </p>

<p>But still, I totally agree with you, we should be funding useful departments, maybe philosophy, you know, invest in the future and all that.</p>

<p>(Initiate ■■■■■ thread)</p>

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<p>Look, I didn’t say that I was a member of the Occupy movement.</p>

<p>What I am saying is that the movement exists, whether we agree with it or not. I’ve therefore always wondered that, since the movement is going to occupy some campus grounds anyway, why wouldn’t they occupy the specific locale that is actually connected to their concerns?</p>

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<p>From what I can tell, the main purpose of what has been happening at berkeley has been to put a halt on tuition hikes and such - it makes sense that they would be outside of the “administrative” building. I havent heard this specifically, but did they not say that they were not against Haas, but the one percent (this was around the time of that haas shooting) which may sound weird, but does make a a degree of sense. </p>

<p>Also, location, I mean, who goes down that back route to Haas, and then how would the hipsters chilling around sproul stumble upon a new movement?</p>

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<p>I always thought that the Occupy Cal movement was a sibling of the Occupy Wall Street movement, which was the progenitor of all of the Wall Street ‘children’ movements. And the goal of the Occupy Wall Street movement was to, natch, occupy Wall Street and protest the baleful influence of the financial services industry on the rest of society. What part of Cal is more intertwined with the financial services industry than Haas, and particularly, the finance department at Haas? </p>

<p>Regarding location, I mean, come on, with the proliferation of new technology, it wouldn’t be that hard to alert everybody (say through Twitter) that the movement was occupying Haas rather than Sproul. Or Occupy Cal could simply occupy both locations, with coordination between the two. If there were only some technological device that would fit in your pocket that would allow people at Sproul to instantly communicate with people at Haas…</p>

<p>But look, again, I’m not saying that I necessarily agree with the Occupy movement. I’m simply surprised that, since the very first Occupy movement was born on Wall Street, a similar movement wasn’t born at Haas. The root cause of the tuition raises that the Occupy Cal movement are protesting is the financial crash and its aftermath.</p>