Newspapers / Elon University Student Newspaper / May 2, 2018, edition 1 / Page 6
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II MAY 2,2018 lYWCFORUATO M3T AVUj^ F(K PHOIDGRAm SUSAM CHNWQRTH iUC KARl GREEN H«lDSBYPHOnBBYA8BVGttSlHCn)n)fnRCllVffinSO«|ElOHNnilSNnMW.AFeCORYWmfR|ElONNE^ NETWORK Faculty prepare! FACULTY I from cover Why the size? School of Communications Gerald Gibsons 36-year career as an assistant professor of communications at Elon consisted of many firsts. The Department of Literature, Lan guages and Communications is where Gibson first began teaching as an in structor in 1979. He became the first full-time com munications professor at Elon and then me first faculty adviser to Eton’s stu dent-run radio station. WSOE. He was mere when me School of Communica tions rvas founded in 2000. and now he wiU be me first communications feculty member to retire. ^ for adventure for me, Gibson said “I’ve gotten to go abroad, I ve tahen students to New York and Los ^geles. I've supervised intern ships and helped with me radio station. But now it is time for my wife and I to have our own adventures.” All the adventures Gibson has planned after his retirement fill him with excitement, but he can’t help his emotions mount as his final class closes ii Provost Steven House attributes this large group of retiring faculty to the continuous growth of the university over the years. Henricks, now a professor of sociol ogy, joined Elon’s faculty in 1977, when there were fewer than 100 full-time faculty members. Now, there are more than three times that number. According to House, this growth means larger groups of faculty will retire together in the future - the more profes sors, the more retirees. “We had a lot of growth in the uni versity ... and those individuals have helped create the Elon we are today;” House said. “I’m not sure I would say huge, but this is certainly the largest that we’ve had, and it is to be expected. They have reached the age of retirement, and we are going to have to rely on a new group of leaders.” Data available from 1989 onward from the Elon Fact Book shows that Elon’s faculty has steadily grown since the 1989-90 academic school year. Elon’s goal is to continue this upward trend, according to House. But this goal is not only for the faculty, but also for the student body, which has experi enced steady growth since the 1993-94 academic school year. “The growth of the faculty is tied to the growth of the number of students,” House said. “Our targeted student fac ulty ratio is 12-to-l. So, every time you grow [by] 100 students, you should hire five or six faculty.... Our goal is to grow the institution anywhere from 80 to 100 students a year.” House has calculated these numbers until the year 2035. If Elon continues to grow by 100 students and six faculty each year, the institution will have grown by 1,600 students and 96 faculty members by the 2034-35 academic school year. That’s a total of 7,645 undergraduate students and 535 full-time faculty. While these are the goals for the future, the student population growth Elon has experienced thus far has at tracted more professors to the universi ty who, according to House, have the opportunity to expand and advance their skills, enabling them to eventually step up and fill the roles of retiring fac ulty. Each department is in a different place in the process of hiring new pro fessors, including determining whether each retirees’ position will be filled. “We have been building up profes sors all along the way^ House said. “We have a lot of full professors who are ready to now fill in and become the se nior leaders across campus.” “I have been trying to compart mentalize my feelings and not let them overwhelm me,” Gibson said. “But the reality that I am doing things for the last time kind of creeps in and I find myself thinking, ‘Now what do I do?”’ Paul Parsons, dean of the School of Commimications, has also been think ing about what the school will be like after Gibson retires. “He is our longest-serving commu nications professor, and he really got us started,” Parsons said. “We will be poor er without him.” The process of retirement affects both students and faculty. “We have students who enter as first years who later graduate, and ... we are wishing we could keep them forever, but that is a bad way to think because we are launching them into their careers,” Parsons said. “The same is true for the faculty. We have faculty who have been outstanding that are choosing to retire, and we are hiring new faculty to replace them. It is the cycle of academic life.” But while Gibson’s academic cycle is coming to an end, Parsons’ is evolving. Though he is also stepping dovm from his long-held position as dean at the end of this academic school year, Parsons is planning on returning to Elon in fall 2019 as a full-time professor in the School of Communications. “If this were a pure retirement on my part, there would be more sadness, but I’m not feeling any sadness now,” Parsons said. “I’ve served for 17 years as dean and I’ve loved it. But I also think it is time for someone else to do it, so I am looking forward to coming back and being a professor.” Parsons comeback as a professor THERE IS GREAT GRATITUDE AROUND THEIR COMMITMENl COMMITMENT ME* YOU CARE ENOUGH HERETO REALLYli MAKEADIEFERENCE BECKY NEIDUSKI DEAN OFTHE SCHOOL Of BE SCIENCES RETIRING FACULTY 1. Gerald Gibson 2. Paul Parsons 3. Jane Freund 4. Susan Chinworth 5. Steve Moore 6. Pamela Kiser 7. Lynne Formato 8. Betty Morgan 9. Sharon Spray 10. Anthony Weston 11. Thomas Henricks 12. Jeffrey Pugh 13. Barry Beadle 14. Karl Green 15. Paul Fromson List of retiring faculty compiled tiy ttie doe of Office of University Commuratloiis,3n(IDeaisDfe STUDENTS & FI 8000 7000 6000 5000 4000 - KEY: UndergradoateStutt Full-Time Faculty % 3000 2000 1000 0 yrrTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTT* 1970 c I
Elon University Student Newspaper
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May 2, 2018, edition 1
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