RE: State Of The University Address Today
Oh it's absolutely going to be a bloodbath Paul, I just wonder how they'll attack this. For clarity, Division Leaders (AVPs, Deans, and VPs) were told to "perform exercises" for 5%, 10% and 20% total revenue cuts, they weren't given any numerical indication other than they would be "sizable," and one has to consider that some Divisions would be getting hit harder than others (it would stand to reason that Student Life, Residence Life, Recreational Services, Athletics, and Operations and Facilities would likely see larger reductions than Academic Affairs, Compliance, and IT given their level of comparative "essentialness"). Perhaps they'll finally move on what many throughout the UT community have complained about for years and start reducing the amount of upper level administrative bloat, specifically within Colleges. Or maybe they'll have some extremely hard conversations about what degree programs and College should be considered overall for a University suffering from the problems UT has been seeing. I would expect an NSM/A&L reorganization, a firm reassessment of College of Education, and potentially some retirement negotiations for senior faculty and staff at their STERS or PERS final brackets at this point. For reference to all of those who are unfamiliar, if we break down UT Main Campus Operations separately from UTMC, those operating cuts would equate to $17,000,000 at 5%, $35,000,000 at 10%, and $70,000,000 at 20%.
The most responsible, and hardest, decision to try to lessen the blow and have as much cash up front as possible to absorb some of these cuts would've been to furlough auxiliary services, Residence Life, and Student Org staffs once campus shut down, but they haven't done that and many individuals are collecting checks while they sit around and play video games, watch movies, do lawn work, or just sleep, all the while that money could've been going to protect their jobs moving forward if they were furloughed. Many of those individuals, and others who have been working consistently and tirelessly over the last month will be completely let go now unless the University dips into their endowment to protect their work force...which is an incredibly tenuous situation given what level that is already at.
I think you could see a lot of force furloughs or hourly reductions for staff members over this year, along with reduction in course offerings to help, but there will almost certainly be layoffs and non-renewals as well.
(This post was last modified: 04-14-2020 07:53 AM by BearcatMan.)
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