As I posted earlier, the University of Western Ontario Department of Economics has slipped in various rankings over the past 25 years, and the decline has been substantial. In the early 1980s, we were one of 30 departments claiming to be in the top 20. These days we seem to be one of 60 or 70 departments claiming to be in the top 50 (note to some commenters: I know the most recent ranking that I cited earlier is flawed due to its self-reporting nature; nevertheless, it captures the point I'm trying to make that UWO econ is nowhere near what it used to be).
What is truly sad and disappointing is that the department is likely to deteriorate considerably more in the future. Here is a summary of the situation, based on information provided by some colleagues:
Just to be really clear, it is the Dean of the Faculty of Social Sciences, which houses the economics department, that is killing us; he is 99% responsible for our problems.
Other departments grew considerably in size in recent years while we shrank (despite the fact that we were adding a lot of students and they weren't). We were in the worst shape in Social Science before the budget crisis and now are taking the biggest hits. A few years ago, we had commitments in place that we could expand, and now that the crunch has hit, we are being told we must cut back from our current position, not from our larger, promised position.
The dean spent a lot of short-term money on other departments. Then, when he woke up one day and realized he had no way to meet future obligations, he instituted a policy of no replacements, no growth, and essentially 100% tax on any other money raised in a department. Surprise, surprise, it has been our department that is generating most of this money, and we have been told we cannot keep any of it.
The university isn't much better, but if the university got its act together and sent some money to this faculty, none of that money would help us in economics anyway. It would be sent to other departments....
The dean has now appointed an "interim ... acting ... chair" who will try to hold things together; i.e., the department has gone into receivership for now. Apparently the better-qualified members of the dept who would have (and have in the past) made good temporary chairs either would not take on the task this time or were not approached by the dean.
Earlier this week, everyone in the faculty of Social Sciences received letters from the Dean, asking us to donate a portion of our salary increases to the Faculty (hah! --- close friends find the request both appalling and laughable). The letter blames the unanticipated monetary shortfalls on the fact that with the abolition of mandatory retirement, too many old people are hanging on with high salaries. That sounds like even more bad financial planning to me. I hope the admins are not saying they were too short-sighted to anticipate that some of our older colleagues would hang around for an extra few years.
I have seen things like this happen in economics departments at other universities. Once a funding crunch like this hits the department, the best people leave [UWO cashed in on this phenomenon several times in the past, most notably hiring David Laidler and Michael Parkin in the mid-1970s and John Whalley after that]. Then other really good people leave. Eventually, the only ones left are those who have personal reasons for not leaving (e.g. couples who find relocation difficult and costly) or old fogeys like me who are locked in contractually for other reasons. Finding replacements who are as good as those who leave proves to be very difficult.
Unless the funding is restored and rebuilt for the department soon, we will sink even farther in the rankings, as those who are most mobile will surely leave. Even though many other universities and economics departments are hurting, some will find a way to pick off our best young talent.
It is all very sad and very painful.
And very deserved.
Update: for more, see the article and letters in today's Western News.