Furloughs, Layoffs Options as UNC Faces Budget Cuts
Posted on Feb. 2, 2009The only certainty about the state’s share of the University’s budget is that it will be cut – probably deeply – as the state deals with revenue shortfalls in the growing financial crisis.
Administrators and faculty are discussing how best to approach the personnel issue, which offers the most impact in the event of severe cuts: layoffs, salary cuts or not filling vacant positions. And UNC President Erskine Bowles ’67 said Friday that he would ask for legislation to let campuses furlough workers.
Individual departments and schools are looking for innovative ways to reduce costs, and Chancellor Holden Thorp ’86 has asked students, faculty and staff to e-mail him with ideas for tightening the belt.
In response to a request by Gov. Beverly Perdue, Bowles asked UNC System campuses to submit plans for state budget cuts of 3 percent, 5 percent and 7 percent. UNC receives about 25 percent of its budget from state appropriation; a 5 percent budget cut would amount to about $25 million.
In a campuswide memo, Thorp said that a 5 percent budget cut could mean the loss of 120 faculty positions and 85 staff positions and that a 7 percent budget cut could mean the loss of 230 faculty positions and 150 staff positions.
“If we get over 5 percent, we don’t have a lot of spare money besides in the salary budget,” said Richard L. Mann, vice chancellor of finance and administration. “If we have cuts, there is only a limited amount of things we can do besides looking at vacancies and positions that could be cut.”
A furlough would mean forcing University staff to take time off without pay. Bowles did not offer details about how many people might be affected or about the length of furloughs. After the enabling legislation, furloughs would have to be approved by the UNC System Board of Governors.
“It’s a good tool to have in the toolbox as we figure out how to deal with these enormous cuts,” Bowles told The News & Observer of Raleigh.
“I can tell you how it has worked at other institutions and in other states,” Mann said. “Employees would be required to take a specified number of days off during the year for which they would not be paid.” Mann said typically this would be between three and 10 days spread over some period. “The employees’ pay would be reduced either in accordance with the actual days off or spread out over a longer period of time to lessen the financial burden on the employee if all the days off occur during one or two pay periods.”
Faculty Chair Joe Templeton said he believed some faculty members would work even while furloughed.
The UNC trustees at their January meeting were told that a 5 percent cut in the budget for next year would result in 121 lost faculty positions and a loss of 86 other staff positions, most of which could come from existing vacancies. That many job cuts, the trustees were told, could mean 282 fewer undergraduate classes offered, which in turn would mean an increase in the number of classes with 100 or more students.
“It raises a lot of questions about classes, class sizes and how many sections to offer,” Mann said. “On the administrative side, do we cut the way we do things, such as in cleaning and repair? We cut things so that it has the least negative impact.”
Faculty positions that were approved over the summer also may remain open, Templeton said. With these open positions, faculty members could see an increase in their workloads.
“The outlook that faculty have is a real mix of emotions,” Templeton said. “There’s almost the reality that the workload is going to increase for people who are lucky enough to be here.
“Faculty and staff are willing to share the pain, but on the other side is the focus that we want to be an outstanding academic institution. We need to maintain some skyscrapers [outstanding faculty] so when people look over they see that we’ve been able to maintain a center of excellence during times of economic trouble.”
The University’s professional schools also are looking for ways to trim their bottom line.
James W. Dean Jr., dean of Kenan-Flagler Business School, said the school is considering reducing travel and printing expenses and offering fewer class electives.
“We are trying to take the opportunity the situation presents to think about how to do things that are better on a number of levels,” Dean said. “If we print less, it’s good on an environmental standpoint, too.”
The Gillings School of Global Public Health plans to not publish a print version of its magazine, Carolina Public Health, to save money. The school will make the magazine available online, where back issues already can be read.
“We’re trying to look for creative ways to continue to provide the services that we’ve done but to do it less expensively,” said Ramona DuBose ’80, director of communications at the school.
Universities, including Carolina, could feel an added pinch if the UNC System Board of Governors decides not to approve next year’s campus-approved tuition increases. Bowles recently said he would prefer lower tuition and fee increases than some schools requested. The board is scheduled to vote on tuition rates in mid-February.
The UNC trustees had sent to the Board of Governors a plan to raise tuition $240 for in-state undergraduates and by $1,150 for out-of-state students, plus a $75 fees increase.
