Drury opts not to renew 12 faculty contracts

Citing a restructuring effort designed to grow enrollment, Drury University announced this week it decided not to renew the contracts of 12 faculty members within a two-year period.

Five of the faculty member’s contracts would not be renewed for the 2016-17 academic year, meaning they would be let go next May. The seven others would work through the following school year ending May 2017. Notified Sept. 25, the five faculty members whose contracts will end next May are not on track for tenure. Two are full time. Of the seven whose contracts end in May 2017, a portion are on track for tenure but none have reached it. All seven are full time, according to a news release provided by spokesman Mike Brothers.

“Our faculty are Drury University’s most valued resource,” President David Manuel said in the release, noting schools officials are working with the affected faculty to help find them new jobs. “These are decisions that are not taken lightly and not made in haste.”

The restructuring would allow Drury to invest funding in new academic and co-curricular programs, as well as an enrollment strategy to grow its student numbers and geographic footprint. Brothers said via email traditional undergraduate day-school enrollment dropped 8.9 percent to 1,325 this semester, compared to 1,454 a year earlier.

Money also would be used in such new degree programs as animation, film, and TV production, video game development, behavioral neuroscience, and mathematics with a concentration in actuarial science and risk management. Other new degree programs are planned, according to the release.

“Institutions of higher education must become more nimble and technology focused to attract incoming students and offer the types of majors that feed into careers of the future,” said Steven Combs, Drury’s vice president for academic affairs, in the release. “We are moving proactively to enhance the student experience and build on what makes a Drury education an outstanding value for our students as they invest in their careers and seek out meaningful ways to make a difference in the world around them.”