State of George Fox Staff and Faculty

By: Natascha Lambing

Illustrated by: Carla Cieza Espinoza

Last spring’s “Building a Better University” Plan announcement outlined significant changes to the available academic portfolio. Today, George Fox University (GFU) finds itself still implementing those changes among their faculty.

The shifts in GFU’s general education package and “reimagining” of various liberal arts-based programs were met with contention by students as departments were collapsed and reformatted. In an interview with The Crescent last fall, Provost Andrea Scott listed STEM (referring to Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math programs) as one of the university’s current academic priorities.

However, with one primary professor on sabbatical and another that took a position at a different university, GFU’s Engineering Department has also found itself lacking in full-time faculty. One example of the Engineering Department's attempt to mitigate their lack is the necessity of having one professor who typically teaches exclusively during the spring semester agree to cover some of the remaining courses this fall. The department has also needed to rely upon a handful of adjuncts to make up for the limited number of full-time faculty. Although adjuncts can bring strong industry experience to students, Debby Thomas, Dean of the College of Business, noted that filling in full-time faculty with adjuncts “isn’t sustainable in the long term for a ‘Be Known’ promise.”

Thomas said that in her department they are “covering eight full-time faculty positions with adjunct work.” This is the result of the recent “upheaval in higher education,” Thomas said. “We’ve just seen turnover like we’ve never seen before and I think I can say that’s all across George Fox [...] not just our department.”

Hiring new faculty is commonly viewed as a long and arduous process. “They’re big decisions; hiring a faculty member is a huge commitment and the whole faculty needs to be on board and we need to go through the process well,” Thomas said. The faith aspect at GFU also “narrows down the people who will apply,” confounding the hiring process further.

However, that faith aspect is exactly what attracted professors like Lindsey Hankins, who joined GFU as an Assistant Professor of Theology this fall. “The number of schools that take faith as seriously as their academics is a pretty short list,” Hankins said. “I don’t want to have to put my brain on the shelf to pursue my faith and I don’t want my students to feel that way.”

Hankins’s situation is unique and a seeming sign of GFU’s desperation for full-time faculty. “I came to Fox quickly. I heard about the position and was asked to apply in early July and had accepted it by the end of July,” Hankins said. Because of the speed with which Hankins accepted and began her job at GFU, her family remains in her home in New Jersey while she spends the majority of her time in Newberg. However, despite three to four weeks spent in Newberg, and then flying to New Jersey for a week, Hankins notes that the semi-regular cross country trips to spend time with family has not hindered her ability to connect well with her students.

GFU students look forward to the hiring of reliable and supportive faculty members like Professor Hankins in the future.