With three more faculty positions becoming vacant after the 2012-2013 school year, Baker University is struggling keep up with student demand.

“It’s very natural for there to be some turnover at any university, and we’re always kind of behind as we try to fill the positions,” Brian Posler, executive vice president of academic affairs and dean of the College of Arts and Sciences, said. “We’re doing the searches now that were vacant a year ago, and the ones that have become vacant now, we have to figure out what we can do to get them filled in time for next year.”

Here is a list of faculty searches that have taken place this school year:

Mathematics

Sports Administration

International Studies

Exercise Science

Marketing

Note — For the marketing position, candidates have visited campus but no offer has been extended and the search may be postponed until next year.

Five searches have been ongoing this school year in an attempt to either fill vacant positions or, in the case of sports administration, open up a new position to meet student needs.

But with far more than five positions open across campus, how does the university decide which ones will be filled?

“Last fall, I asked all the chairs to get together and debate amongst themselves which lines had the most need and then to rank each position,” Posler said. “Then my job was to see how much funding we could scrounge together and how far down the list we could get.”

One opening that did not make the top five was religion, which was left vacant when George Wiley departed last spring. As a result, students are no longer able to major in religion because the appropriate classes aren’t able to be offered.

Sophomore and religion minor Rachel Haley said she was very disappointed to hear that Wiley was not going to be replaced.

“I fully intended to study religion when I came to Baker, and I knew Baker would be a good place to do that, but it’s sad to say that my assumption was totally off,” Haley said “Now I’m forced to work around it and take independent studies to get just the minor.”

Gary Irick, chair of the Business and Economics Department, said it is the “demographics” of a program that drive which positions get filled.

“How many majors? How much student interest? What’s happening with the program going forward? These are all things we look at,” Irick said.

Posler said the department chairs will reconvene in the fall to once again rank the list of vacancies.

“In the meantime, we’ve got to figure out how to cover classes in the fall and how we can work around the absences of some of these colleagues because they were obviously key individuals,” Posler said. “My hope now is that we can find colleagues that will enhance the experience at Baker and we can step up from where we’ve been as well.”