The 1990s will be remembered as a truly difficult time for higher education in Alabama. There was what could be interpreted as a delayed reaction to the same difficulties (budget cuts, program closures, etc.) that higher education encountered in the late 1980s. Shortage of funds for public K-12 schools lead to a significant reduction in funding for colleges and universities. It is ironic that the governor who made the decision to cut funding to Auburn University was the Honorable Fob James, an Auburn alumnus in civil engineering and football star. James was of the opinion that higher education was inefficient.
In times of shortage of funds, extreme measures are often taken. In the opinion of some, the university had been overextended in terms of programs offered and services provided. An offer of early retirement incentives reduced the number of faculty members at the expense of losing veteran faculty who were still major contributors. The next step was to use the priority process, set up during the preceding four years before as part of a "continuous quality improvement" management emphasis, to cut programs and services and reallocate funds. As noted by numerous higher education experts, setting priorities within universities is always difficult. It is doubly difficult for some programs that happen to have low enrollments caused by cyclic economic and political forces. Although by 1997 enrollment in aerospace engineering was increasing, that did not seem to matter much in the priority setting process.
In 1998, an election year, things reached a climax. When choices were forced, the aviation management program was deemed by some to be of lesser priority than other programs in the College of Engineering. Without the aviation management program, the aerospace programs were considered too small to justify a separate department. Thus, preliminary recommendations were made to phase out the aviation management program, which had 235 students, and merge the aerospace and mechanical departments. A significant effort, somewhat political and similar to those commonly used in response to proposals to close a military base, was mounted. Aerospace engineering and aviation management students, their parents, faculty, alumni, industry representatives and other constituents campaigned to retain the Department of Aerospace Engineering department and all its programs. That effort was successful in most respects. The Department of Aerospace Engineering and all its programs were retained and future support of the department and all the affected programs was promised. However, in the end game, the aviation management program was considered more compatible with programs in the College of Business. It was moved there in 1999 as a part of the new Department of Aviation Management and Logistics.
Arguably, the major positive result of the reallocation exercise was the recognition by the Board of Trustees that tuition increases and major fund raising were required if Auburn University were to remain competitive and increase in prominence.
