OSU is doing the same; see Robin Wilson, "Ohio State 'Taxes' Departments to Make a Select Few Top-Notch," _Chronicle of Higher Education_, 6/1/2001 at <http://chronicle.com/free/v47/i38/38a00801.htm>. If you have the interest of students & the mission of the public university in mind, the strategy doesn't make economic sense, since hiring stars is meant to raise the academic ranking of the institution, bringing in grants & luring richer students with better scores, which is again supposed to raise the ranking -- in the end allowing the university to charge extravagant tuition, I think, based on the justification that it's now an elite institution! Besides, any vulgar economic contribution that might be _possibly_ made by hiring stars is eclipsed by further cuts in state funding (to which the drive for competition -- for stars, grants, better rankings, students with money -- was originally conceived as a bureaucratic response), since the more capitalistic the university becomes, the less money the state can justify itself for budgeting for it.
In any case, OSU's ambition is likely scuttled by the already announced cuts in state funding:
***** The Lantern 4/9/01
Academic Plan in financial trouble President Kirwan's plan for university put on hold because of limited state funding By Miranda Zink
Ohio State's goal of becoming one of the nation's premier public institutions may be put in jeopardy if Gov. Bob Taft continues to decrease state funding to publicly-funded universities, said OSU President William "Brit" Kirwan at the University Senate meeting Saturday.
In preparation for next year's likely higher education budget cuts and to ensure OSU maximizes all its available resources, Kirwan has announced the following actions:
* postpone any new commitments to Academic Enrichment for next year
* suspend indexing for new library acquisitions
* delay implementation of the transition to selective admissions for non-fall quarter first year and transfer students
* plan for no increase in operating budgets for supplies and equipment in the next fiscal year
* implement a selective freeze for hiring all non-instructional personnel except for people on sponsored grants and those whose jobs involve health and safety (This freeze will not apply to currently authorized searches.)
* limit the initiative to hire senior, national-academy-caliber faculty to those cases already in process
These actions come after Kirwan expressed his grave concern for the well-being of the university and the entire state of higher education in Ohio because of the state's struggle to fund public universities.
"Where we stand is not a good place," Kirwan said.
According to Kirwan, Ohio is ranked 40th in the nation in state support for public universities and last among states with Big Ten schools. Ohio is also ranked 21st in the nation in K-12 per pupil spending.
The governor reported a bare-bones budget for higher education, which will only allows a 1.2 percent increase of state support for instruction in fiscal year 2002, Kirwan said.
Making things worse, the governor just announced a 1 percent cut in all state agency budgets except K-12 for the current fiscal year and since, OSU is three-fourths the way through the fiscal year, this means a 4 percent cut in the university's funds for the rest of the year, Kirwan said.
"Thus, we have decided to use the university's 'rainy day' fund to cushion this short-term financial cut of more than $4 million," Kirwan said. "While we may have to re-coup these funds from units next year, this at least buys us some time."
The senators appeared to be alarmed by Kirwan's remarks and, when given the opportunity to make comments, the senate was uncharacteristically silent.
As a result of the new developments, OSU has increased its lobbying efforts at the Ohio Statehouse. Kirwan and other university officials have been meeting almost daily with the members of the General Assembly to preserve the state's current level of funding, Kirwan said.
According to Kirwan, the drop in fiscal dollars makes the Academic Plan more important, and the university should move forward with the plan, using whatever level of funding is provided.
At this point, it is impossible to make any commitments on faculty salaries for next year, Kirwan said.
However, in comparing OSU's compensation to benchmark institutions, OSU's competitive position during the past five years has declined leaving a gap between aspirations and material resources, said Richard K. Herrmann, a member of the Faculty Compensation and Benefits Committee.
...OSU ranks seventh among 10 benchmark institutions, which is a decline from third position in 1996-1997 in terms of total compensation (the combination of salary and benefits) provided to faculty members across all ranks, Herrmann said. *****
Yoshie