2008 Woodie Awards
History Weekly
President Kenneth C. Rogers: The Professor
Sheeraz Hyder
Issue date: 2/23/07 Section: Campus News
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Kenneth C. Rogers, Chair of the Physics Department at the Stevens Institute of Technology, and director of the MEGATRON project, upon President Jess Davis's retirement due to brain cancer, was chosen by the board of trustees and alumni to lead Stevens as its fifth president in 1971. Rogers inherited a budget crisis that had ensued in 1970, as Stevens struggled to deal with the loss of Jess Davis. At 2.7 percent, the budget deficit presented unique problems to Rogers who had to make difficult decisions regarding the size of the faculty and the depth of laboratory research that Stevens undertook.
Although Rogers couldn't reduce the size of the tenured faculty, he did decrease the amount of untenured professors by ten percent in his second year of office. He also significantly reduced the research staff at the labs since these were nonessential personnel and could be let go without regret. Stevens suffered a decline in applications following a national trend which necessitated drawing on the endowment, which itself had declined during the Davis years but managed to bounce back during the Rogers' administration, to keep the institute running.
Rogers also asked the Stevens Alumni Association to add a bylaw to their constitution bringing the governance of fundraising, their chief focus, under the Stevens Institute of Technology. The SAA would retain its autonomy but its primary function that of fundraising would be under the direction of Stevens. Rogers, a president from the faculty, organized a conference in 1972, on governance and in late 1972, appointed a special President's Committee on Governance to make recommendations "to enhance the relationships between all members of the community and allow for a fuller enfranchisement of faculty and students vis a vis their dealings with the staff and administration."
The committee finished its recommendations with a complex system of boards and more committees that not only President Rogers objected to but the current faculty as well. Rogers and the faculty council were also intent on churning out a new P&T (Personnel & Training) policy by the fall of 1974. The new P&T policy was met by criticism by the AAUP, Stevens' chapter of the American Association of University Professors, a union that claimed to represent the best interests of professors nationwide, as was Rogers' plan to balance the budget. Rogers' budget (called the "Three-Year Recovery Plan") froze professor salaries for the first year, and then had merit-based 5-percent-incremental increases the second year. Under the plan, the deficit was reduced to ten percent of the budget to $773,000 in the second year.
Although Rogers couldn't reduce the size of the tenured faculty, he did decrease the amount of untenured professors by ten percent in his second year of office. He also significantly reduced the research staff at the labs since these were nonessential personnel and could be let go without regret. Stevens suffered a decline in applications following a national trend which necessitated drawing on the endowment, which itself had declined during the Davis years but managed to bounce back during the Rogers' administration, to keep the institute running.
Rogers also asked the Stevens Alumni Association to add a bylaw to their constitution bringing the governance of fundraising, their chief focus, under the Stevens Institute of Technology. The SAA would retain its autonomy but its primary function that of fundraising would be under the direction of Stevens. Rogers, a president from the faculty, organized a conference in 1972, on governance and in late 1972, appointed a special President's Committee on Governance to make recommendations "to enhance the relationships between all members of the community and allow for a fuller enfranchisement of faculty and students vis a vis their dealings with the staff and administration."
The committee finished its recommendations with a complex system of boards and more committees that not only President Rogers objected to but the current faculty as well. Rogers and the faculty council were also intent on churning out a new P&T (Personnel & Training) policy by the fall of 1974. The new P&T policy was met by criticism by the AAUP, Stevens' chapter of the American Association of University Professors, a union that claimed to represent the best interests of professors nationwide, as was Rogers' plan to balance the budget. Rogers' budget (called the "Three-Year Recovery Plan") froze professor salaries for the first year, and then had merit-based 5-percent-incremental increases the second year. Under the plan, the deficit was reduced to ten percent of the budget to $773,000 in the second year.
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