Only a month before the October 2008 announcement of a faculty hiring freeze, Miami University officials estimated Miami would soon be losing about half its faculty to retirement, but new economic developments make that statement much less certain.

In a Sept. 9, 2008 Miami Student article titled "University attempts to attract faculty with endowments," Brad Bundy, associate vice president of university advancement, said Miami would lose approximately 50 percent of its faculty to retirement within the next five to seven years.

Since the national recession deepened significantly in the months since September, Jim Ambuske, director of special projects for university advancement, said this a much more difficult question to answer than it would have been a year ago.

Ambuske said prior to the recession, universities nationwide began preparing for the beginnings of the "Baby Boom" generation's retirement, including Miami.

"Several professional publications that track higher education indicated that these retirements, coupled with an increased number of college-bound students across the nation, would create a sort of 'perfect storm' in higher education," Ambuske said. "These factors were projected to increase the competition among universities for quality faculty. The global recession, however, calls at least part of these assumptions into question."

Elaborating on Miami's current situation, Ambuske said it is too early to tell how the collapse of the financial markets will affect the retirement plans faculty members make.

"As such, some folks may decide they need to work a bit longer to shore up their retirement," Ambuske said. "It will take time for this process to evolve and for Miami, as well as other universities, to gain a clearer understanding of how this will influence hiring trends."

Ambuske said many things draw in new faculty.

"Close interaction between faculty members and their students is a core element of the Miami experience," Ambuske said. "It's something that all Miamians - students, faculty, staff and alumni - work very hard to preserve and enhance. Miami looks for a particular kind of professor, one who is committed to the teacher-scholar model."

Two years ago, Miami began two primary initiatives, as part of the For Love and Honor Campaign, to increase the number of endowed professorships and faculty chairs, Ambuske said.

"The first program seeks to create endowed chairs for assistant professors within the Farmer School of Business (FSB)," Ambuske said. "The second endeavor works to generate support for endowed professorships and faculty chairs for all areas of the university through a matching program sponsored by the Miami Foundation."

According to Ambuske, Miami has successfully created nearly 20 new endowed positions with these two initiatives.

"The interest generated from these endowments pay for part of the holder's salary, while also providing for some professional expenses such as research or conference travel or enhanced student classroom experiences," Ambuske said.

While the predicted retirement rate appears to be an issue of concern, Ambuske said Miami puts a high priority on recruiting new professors.

"The recession places the timing of some faculty retirements in flux and thus the intensity of the job market, but the endowments do and will offer Miami the ability to attract promising young scholars while helping to keep some more senior teachers from leaving for other institutions," Ambuske said. "The university is committed to recruiting and retaining gifted scholars and teachers."

Ray Gorman, senior associate dean of the FSB, said the shortage of professors in the business school, especially in accounting, creates a challenge. Gorman said since the business school did a great deal of its hiring in the 1970s when it was growing, they have been aware for the past five or six years that the number of retiring professors would increase.

"The supply of particularly new faculty is not as big as it used to be relative to the demand," Gorman said.

Gorman said while there has not been a ready supply of new faculty, the recession could help the problem because fewer people are getting hired. More students may go to graduate school and consider teaching, instead of going straight into business.

Ultimately, Ambuske said the market's instability has affected giving trends nationwide, leading to a decline in giving at Miami. However, he finds it positive that "despite the downturn, productive conversations continue to take place with donors interested in establishing these kinds of funds."

Ambuske said this is good for Miami because once the economy recovers people will feel more comfortable about donating.