A&M Using Revenue From Outsourcing Contracts to Recruit Faculty & Grad Students

New revenue streams coming to Texas A&M University is headed towards more faculty and additional support for graduate students.

$6 million dollars a year is coming from A&M’s contracts with Barnes and Noble, Pepsi, and the school’s new contracts for outsourcing food service and maintenance.

Members of the Faculty Senate relayed to President Bowen Loftin, complaints coming from former university employees.

A comment from a member of the A&M Faculty Senate and the response from President Bowen Loftin.

Loftin responded to a question from a senator who reported getting complaints from maintenance workers who are former university employees.

Dr. Loftin’s response to a comment from a member of the Faculty Senate.

A random assessment done by Loftin found most former A&M workers are giving the private company a chance or they’re happy with their new employer.

Dr. Loftin comments about his random assessment since private companies began food service and campus maintenance.

Loftin says a full-time staff is being hired to monitor the new companies, including concerns from affected employees.

Dr. Loftin says additional A&M staff is being hired to monitor outsourcing contracts.

Additional information is courtesy of Texas A&M University:

Texas A&M University President R. Bowen Loftin has announced a $6 million program to hire additional faculty and provide more support for graduate students, with the new initiatives underwritten by funds derived from outsourcing and private-sector partnerships.                                                                 

Addressing the Texas A&M Faculty Senate earlier this week, Loftin said $4.5 million per year will be used to attract additional world-class faculty and $1.5 million per year will be devoted to a variety of programs to enhance opportunities for students studying for master’s and doctoral degrees.

The new initiatives will be implemented against a backdrop of Texas A&M having surpassed this fall two major enrollment milestones: a student body that now exceeds 50,000 and with the number of graduate students totaling more than 10,000.

“The past few years have been a time of shared sacrifice, of doing more with less,” said Loftin, referencing a reduction of nearly $40 million in state appropriations during the last legislative session. “It is imperative that we strategically invest in our core academic mission in order to maintain our trajectory of becoming one of the country’s top 10 public universities by the year 2020.”

Loftin said Texas A&M’s size and continuing growth, coupled with opportune business arrangements related to that size and growth, made possible the additional funding from somewhat unconventional sources.

“Although growth for growth’s sake is not an institutional goal, the university unquestionably benefits in several meaningful ways by having a large student body and a campus that is an attractive destination—for former students returning to their alma mater and for visitors overall.” Loftin said. “Also, the Texas A&M brand is becoming increasingly popular throughout the state and beyond, helping generate revenues in unprecedented ways and levels.” 

Loftin said funding to support the two new initiatives will come from revenue derived from the recent outsourcing of the university’s dining services to Chartwells, a division of Compass Group; savings from the outsourcing of custodial, landscape services, and building maintenance to SSC Service Solutions, another division of Compass Group; and from revenue generated by two major strategic partners, Barnes & Noble and PepsiCo. 

Barnes & Noble operates the large campus bookstore that figured prominently in the expansion and renovation of the recently reopened Memorial Student Center. PepsiCo has the contract for providing beverages and snacks campus-wide, as well as at all athletic and other public events.

Loftin indicated the new faculty hires will be spread across the academic units of the university based on strategic priorities recommended by the academic deans and the Provost. The $1.5 million earmarked for enhancement of the university’s graduate programs will be used to recruit top student-scholars.

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Posted by Bill Oliver on Sep 13 2012. Filed under Featured Stories, News. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. You can leave a response or trackback to this entry