O CAPTAIN! MY CAPTAIN! OUT HIRING POW’R IS GONE! According to its four college deans, UWEC has hit frustrating hiring difficulties, having already seen faculty applicants backing out of job offers and even signed contracts.

After a month in the spotlight as leading national news, it’s safe to say that a lot has been said about the governor’s campaign to cut the state’s budget. And regardless of where you side on these actions (both proposed and already in motion) the effects are already starting to hit close to home in the form of hiring difficulties at UW-Eau Claire.

With the help of the university news bureau, we asked the four college deans what difficulties, if any, they’ve experienced because of the political climate. And while all of them have had at least some vocalized insecurities, none have been hit as hard as the largest one: Arts & Sciences.

“These are the people that we’ve brought to campus, we spent some money on getting them here, they’re on the top of the list, and they’re turning us down after giving them a job offer.” – Duffy Duyfhuizen, associate dean of Arts & Sciences at UWEC

In order to protect the applicants involved, the deans withheld specific names, but did provide the quite specific scenarios. In one department, someone backed out of a signed contract and two others declined position offers. In another department a husband and wife were both offered positions (very rare), and they declined. In yet another department, three finalists for positions withdrew before their campus visits. And a current faculty member has resigned. All of them specifically citing the state’s proposed education budget as a reason.

As one of the job candidates’ e-mails reads: “Due to the state of affairs adversely affecting the state of Wisconsin, I will not be able to fulfill the contract offered to me. ... This decision was not an easy one to make, but there is clear evidence that my take-home pay would be reduced substantially. Additionally, public education is slated to receive less funding. I cannot, in good conscience, jeopardize my children’s educational opportunities. I am deeply disappointed by this turn of events. UWEC impressed me during my campus visit. The staff, faculty, and students have a wonderful dedication to education.”

While it’s still early to tell how much of an impact this will have in the long run, some school officials think this could lead to a domino effect ... and those dominos are already starting to fall. February is the college’s biggest facul ty recruitment period, so to say the timing is unfortunate is an understatement. They usually hire between 10 and 15 new faculty each year, and the state of education in Wisconsin is causing UWEC to lose its best applicants, Associate Dean Duffy Duyfhuizen said.

“These are the people that we’ve brought to campus, we spent some money on getting them here, they’re on the top of the list, and they’re turning us down after giving them a job offer,” he said.

Not only does this create an inconvenience in that it requires more staff time and more university funds to find other top-notch applicants, but it also could mean ramifications for specific educational programs as they continue to dive deeper into the pool.

“The real challenge is going to be to keep these new hires as well as our current, productive faculty and staff in this difficult environment.”

“Depending on the discipline, the pool of applicants is deep enough that the second person on the list isn’t a major setback, but in others it does lead to more cost of recruitment and in others we might have to fail a search,” Duffy said.

Others, such as College of Business Dean Diane Hoadley, believes this not only effects searching for new faculty, but fresh ones that just came on and veterans with a few years left before retirement. “The real challenge is going to be to keep these new hires as well as our current, productive faculty and staff in this difficult environment.”

Duyfhuizen said they’re already experiencing more vacancies than usual due to early retirements and young faculty opting for the private sector. “It certainly will have an effect if we see an increased trend … and come May this might be very real for us.”

The other interesting aspect to consider is the economy. The current state of the economy is making the number of openings low, so candidates will have fewer offers and be more apt to accept the position, Duffy said. If it improves, and more positions open up nationwide, UWEC will be in a more competitive circumstance and make the true impacts of the cuts clear, he added.