FPPC Decides to Fill Wirtz Position
By Conor O'Rourke
News Associate

Unbeknownst to most students, the fate of vertebrae ecology hung precariously from the ledge of college politics for the past several months. The sole faculty position in the field of ecology will be relinquished at the end of this year with the retirement of Professor William Wirtz. Only last week did Pomona acknowledge this impending absence by granting permission to the Biology department to search for a candidate to fill Wirtz's shoes.

"Sure, you can have music, and art, and politics, but they suddenly lose their importance if you can't breathe," Wirtz notes on the importance of ecology, not just at Pomona, but in everyday life.

When a faculty member retires or resigns, his or her vacated position is not automatically renewed. Instead, the Faculty Position Planning Committee (FPPC) accepts proposals from all departments for new faculty and rates each according to the college's present priorities.

The rating of "C", defined as not a high priority, was given to the biology department's proposal last fall to replace the ecology faculty position.

"We [the biology department] constantly challenged the rating we were given," said biology professor Rachel Levin. "With all the problems we face in the 21st century it would be incredibly tragic and irresponsible if the college did not train its students in ecology," Levin added.

The college responded to the Biology department's concerns and did not let the FPPC's low rating spell the final word for its proposal. "The Biology faculty responded positively to the concerns of the FPPC. These did not have to do with the need for an ecologist per se, but with related issues involving the way in which the department accounts for its overall teaching responsibilities," said Dean of the College Gary Kates.

With eleven full-time members of the faculty, biology is in fact one of the college's largest departments. Wirtz counters this by pointing out that the field of molecular biology is an emerging one and merits the addition of the two new professors recently hired to teach this area. He also notes that the eleventh member of the biology faculty is former dean Lauren Hoopes, who received a customary faculty position when she stepped down as dean.

The second reason for the low rating and low teaching loads was, according to Wirtz, determined without taking into account the added time spent teaching laboratory sections-which science professors are required to do. "The time we spend teaching lab-often more than one section-is just as much a time and energy commitment as teaching another class," Wirtz notes.

The FPPC's solution was to fulfill the ecology vacancy by requiring existing professors-specifically trained ecologists Gene Fowler and/or Frances Hanzawa-to teach ecology classes. However, Wirtz notes that the specialties of his two biology colleagues are endocrinology and plants, respectively, and his own specialty of vertebrates is still left without a knowledgeable professor. "You can't merely say that the guy playing first base will now play second," says Wirtz, "What [the FPPC] didn't realize is that there was no one waiting in the wings to take over."

Sam Glick '03, a student member of the FPPC, was not surprised by the college's final decision. Given the emphasis the college has placed on Environmental Analysis in the last few years, Glick "just didn't see us going without (ecology)."

Dean Kates added, "FPPC rankings are recommendations to the administration. The point is not necessarily the ranking itself, but the reasons for it."

In addition to the ecology position, the Dean of College's office, on behalf of President Stanley, authorized the search for four other tenure track positions, all at the rank of assistant professor.

English will seek to replace Professor Steve Young, who will retire at the end of 2003-04. Neuroscience, will be able to seek a new faculty member to fully supplement the Neuroscience program. Two positions in Geology will be filled: one to replace a retiring faculty member, the other to be searched for in 2004-05 and to begin teaching with the academic year 2005-06.

Yet, it is the ecology position search that attracted the most controversy and that brought a great deal of relief to many in the college community. "I didn't want the college to lose 'being alive'. The students were only being cheated if this had been taken away from them," said Wirtz.