Axe not on whom the bill falls

[randy_byers]

The University has finally learned what the budget cut is going to be this biennium. The state is cutting its contribution to the budget by 26%, but it is allowing the University to raise tuition enough that the actual reduction of the budget will be 12%. This is obviously still a massive cut, and there will be layoffs. Administrative units such as

Comments

[kdotdammit]

I'm glad you shared your anxiety. I work at a university that's been gutted. I'm actually paid by the feds -- National Cancer Institute -- and as such have a more secure job than most (ironically) but my significant other got the axe and we still are reeling from the aftermath. My thought about these state budget cuts is how about instituting a 10% salary cut for all state paid employees who are paid $150K a year or more. That would save a lot of jobs for people who work day-to-day to survive.

[randy_byers]

It would be interesting to see how much that would help. I'm still digesting the message from the University president. The four-year schools took the biggest cuts of any state institutions. "For the first time in our history, tuition revenue will exceed state support." It feels like something fundamental has shifted, but I don't quite understand it yet.

[kdotdammit]

It's pretty depressing. We get awful messages like that almost everyday from our university president and provost. It's like the end of public education. Bean goes into fifth grade next year and the entire 5th grade has been restructured because of budget cuts. They reduced it from four teachers to three teachers. Each class is going to have way more students and the kids have to switch teachers three times instead of two. It's crazy. It all makes me so anxious and depressed especially since it has hit my family personally. I totally understand the impact of this change. It's awful. I try to hold onto the stability that I have but I worry for my daughter's future.

[randy_byers]

Well, I certainly hope things will turn around before Bean gets too much older, but there's no doubt that the situation is pretty fucked right now.

[wrdnrd]

I'm doing organizational math in my head trying to figure out who's retiring! ;)

I was so sorry to hear about Susana -- i had no idea she'd been so sick recently.

I'm really impressed that you guys have been given the option to reduce work hours, etc. What my boss has been hearing from HR for the past several months is that NO, NO, NO, that is NOT an option, we aren't listening to you, LALALALALALALALA.

My boss and supervisor have been saying that we *should* be okay, but, y'know?, i'll relax and allow myself to believe that on july 1st.

[randy_byers]

Gaile is retiring in Data Services. Nancy C just retired in the Mail Room (now called Registrar's Processing Center).

The collapse of Susana's health was heart-breaking. That's about all I can say.

One problem with reducing work hours is that it becomes a permanent aspect of the position that would have to be renegotiated with HR if the budget ever recovers. That might be one reason that managers would be reluctant to go down that road unless things were really desperate. We'll see now how desperate things have become, I guess.

[wrdnrd]

Yeah, the boss and i were talking just the other day about how the shape the university will take after these cuts is the shape it will bear for the next decade. We aren't just going to bounce back in the next biennium.

[randy_byers]

The thing that's really blowing my mind today is that tuition now exceeds state support as a source of funding. Does that make us a semi-private school?