Changes involving Baker University faculty and staff members have been evident over the past year.

From professors retiring or leaving for other opportunities to changes being made during the reduction and reallocation process last year, Baker’s faculty and staff have had to work with less, in terms of human resources.

However, Baker has reached a point in its financial stability where it can begin putting money back into its faculty positions.

An executive cabinet meeting approved the hiring of several faculty positions, including replacing Tracy Floreani, Wendi Born and Ryan Beasley for the 2011-2012 academic year.

Along with this, Baker administrators will hire a full-time replacement for JoAnne Gibson-Lucas and a full-time lab professor for the biology and chemistry departments. Other adjunct professors already at Baker have been offered increased workloads for the upcoming year.

University President Pat Long received about $500,000 worth of new-staff requests. Although the university cannot grant all of these requests for next year, the fact that Baker can start placing more faculty members on campus is a step in the right direction.

The university spoke about the budget and financial numbers improving, but this is a way for students to see the progress being made every day. Long talks about growing as a university, and this will happen with additional faculty teaching a wider range of courses. Not only will this be a positive move for students, this will also free up current faculty members who have taken on extra work to get by over the last year.

Some may worry that paying for extra faculty members will put the university back in the financial state it faced a year ago. Long said Baker has a system in place to check its financial condition regularly and can quickly make adjustments if needed to prevent Baker from returning to the financial state of a year ago.

The addition of professors will benefit current students, but it will also benefit prospective students who will see additional opportunities, in terms of courses or other projects and smaller class sizes, which could draw them to Baker.

These changes may not be overly noticeable while walking across campus, but it is a positive step for the university in moving forward from its past financial struggles.

Long is focused on growth as a university, and the faculty numbers will grow in 2011.