Education Buyout

News that the administration is considering offering professors an early retirement incentive is worrying, especially in conjunction with the ongoing hiring freeze FAS implemented last November. The faculty buyout has the potential to harm Harvard’s educational mission if it is carried out with the hiring freeze still in place. The early retirement incentive is similar to one offered to staff two months ago and is part of a series of measures intended to pare down the faculty’s budget, which is expected to run a $220 million deficit over the next two years if the school does not take measures to reduce its expenditures.

While cost-cutting measures are certainly necessary given the FAS financial situation, trimming the faculty to decrease costs harms a central mission of the University to maintain the highest standard of education possible. Measures that directly threaten Harvard’s quality of education should be a true last resort.

The early retirement incentive does make it easier for professors who wish to retire to do so and allows younger professors to rise in their fields. In fact, in many ways this is a better cost-cutting method than the hiring freeze, which prevents any new talent from being hired. If FAS is faced with the choice between a buyout and a hiring freeze, the buyout is the clear best choice.

Yet, when the buyout is coupled with the hiring freeze, it suggests that the faculty intends to decrease the total number of professors it employs, which could seriously harm the diversity and breadth of course offerings and fields of study—a diversity that is central to Harvard’s educational strength. As a cost-cutting measure, the buyout has the potential to damage the depth, reputation, and integrity of the school by effectively eliminating positions and, possibly, entire fields.

Some professors are the only specialists in their field at the University, and, if they leave while the hiring freeze is still in place, there may be no one to replace them until the freeze is lifted, during which time undergraduate and graduate students would be unable to study under an expert in that field. For this reason, faculty should consider carefully the impact that their departure may have on the study of their field at Harvard under the current hiring freeze before taking a buyout.

With the potential to harm Harvard’s academic mission, FAS should not implement this buyout, and if they find it necessary to do so, the hiring freeze should first be lifted. We appreciate the need for cost-cutting measures in these difficult economic times, but the University’s mission is to provide education of the highest caliber. Intentionally decreasing the size of the faculty is inconsistent with that mission and should only be seen as a last resort.