Brandeis Dean Details Cutback Of 1971 Faculty

Peter Diamandopoulus, dean of the faculty at Brandies University, said yesterday that the university's faculty cutback next year may not be as serious as first believed.

"While it's certainly not a rosy picture full of great hopes," he said, "we anticipate that only ten to 15 full-time teaching positions will have to be eliminated."

Seventy-three expiring contracts are not being renewed in 1971. Fifty-one positions being vacated by retiring faculty are not being re-filled, but only seven full-time and 25 part-time teachers are actually being fired because of the school's shaky financial situation.

"We're trying to come as close as possible to balancing the budget in 1971," Diamandoupolus said. Brandeis accumulated a $1.5 million operating deficit this year. Its total deficit is over $10 million.

At least 41 of the 73 teachers leaving will be replaced by tenured professors returning from sabbatical or leaves of absence next fall. Also, Brandeis hopes to save money by having professors who apply for one-term sabbaticals in 1971 take the entire year off so that the university will not have to pay their salaries.

"What we are doing mainly is not replacing non-tenured professors with short-term contracts who are leavingthis year," he explained. "And you have to remember that 53 of the 73 positions being eliminated are part-time positions."

The Brandeis faculty senate and the American Association of University Professors (AAUP) met with the school's administration last week to discuss the method of distribution for possible cutbacks.

"The cutbacks are being made in as uniform and as equitable a manner as possible," Diamandopoulus said, "but there are prior commitments such as union contracts which prevent completely even distribution."

Some faculty members had suggested that the cutbacks violated the by-laws of the AAUP, but Diamandopoulus said, "nothing that drastic has happened or is about to happen."