Georgiana Coffman
Daily Egyptian
Just weeks ago, budget-cut pondering had many University employees worried about being the next to be laid off.
However, Chancellor Walter Wendler said Monday that decisions have been finalized, and plans for layoffs have been placed on the backburner.
University vice chancellors and college deans have come together to find ways to avoid department layoffs. According to Wendler, most dollars to be used to preserve jobs will come from not hiring people to fill positions of retirees, not replacing non-returning staff and reducing spending on new programs proposed by colleges.
"There are 363 unfilled positions, and we are not filling most of them," Wendler said. "This is the primary way to keep jobs for those who still have them."
Another motivating factor in saving University employees from standing in the unemployment line was to avoid going into seniority disputes, also known as "bumping." According to Wendler, the University wants to preserve healthy working relationships.
"If we had decided to go into the layoff process, employees would then go into the bumping process," Wendler said. "This would create turmoil in the organization, and it is unhealthy to keep changing jobs."
Though not filling empty positions may be one source of revenue guarding employees from losing their jobs, it is still not enough, according to University Budget Director Carol Henry.
As a result, proposed new programs' spending was slashed as well. Henry said funding for programs such as the Center for Graduate Student Excellence in the College of Applied Sciences and Arts was cut from $100,000 to $50,000.
Other programs, such as Digital Communication Specialization in the College of Mass Communications and Media Arts and the Expansion Initiation Center for Excellence in Soybean Research, were also cut by about half of what the colleges had planned to spend to implement them.
"Every area is tightening their belts," Wendler said. "By curtailing spending on new programs, we are simply buying time."
Although the layoffs have been postponed, there is still no guarantee that all positions will be saved. According to Henry, the plans of cutting funds and not hiring comes nowhere near fulfilling the entire $15 million in cuts.
"This plan is meant only to avert layoffs," Henry said. "This is only one of many actions needed to offset the budget cuts."
Other plans college deans came up with to cut expenses were eliminating travel and lodging plans, postponing installation of new equipment, ceasing support service costs and not rehiring some fall returning staff.
"Leaving positions unfilled will inevitably cause unforeseen problems," Wendler said. "We will just have to find ways around them."
Reporter Georgiana Coffman can be reached at gcoffman@dailyegyptian.com
Published on 11/17/05; 12:24:44 PM
