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As the economy continues to gasp for air, state funding for higher education continues to sink.
Virginia Tech is facing a new reduction of over $26.4 million in state funding this semester, sending the total reductions since October 2007 over $68.5 million.
This decrease in funding, taken from the university’s general fund, will force Tech to find ways to significantly decrease its expenditures.
On Oct. 7, university president Charles Steger sent an e-mail to all faculty and staff stating that senior resource managers would begin investigating alternate severance options for the upcoming months.
University budget director Timothy Hodge said that this cycle of state budget reductions began in October 2007, which coincided with the relative beginning of the latest major period of national economic recession.
“The rate at which the economy eroded was so fast,” Hodge said.
Since 2007, there have been five separate state deductions from general university funds — October 2007, February 2008, October 2008, December 2008 and September 2009. In February 2009, Hodge said, no money was actually taken from higher education in an effort to cope with the large amount taken in October 2007. Each round since then, though, has seen a significant reduction from money that would have gone to Tech’s general fund.
After each round of reductions, Tech looked for ways to cope.
Associate provost Dixon Hanna said that the administration has struggled to find more extraneous expenditures to eliminate.
“What the provost concluded in discussion with the president is that the colleges in particular have given up about everything they have in terms of low-hanging fruit,” Hanna said.
Hanna said that most academic units, specifically colleges and departments, have attempted to cut their budgets back to the bare minimum since 2007.
“You can’t just take $60 million out of the university and life goes on all rosy,” Hanna said.
The latest round of reduction has led Tech to the decision that it is now time to begin examining making cuts in the workforce.
“We’re out of options,” Hanna said.
Tech is not the only university impacted by budget cuts. The same percentage of the total budget is being taken from the general funds of all public universities in the state.
Don Egle, spokesperson for James Madison University, said that budget cuts are always challenging for university officials across the state.
“We’ve done what we could to anticipate cuts,” he said.
The University of Virginia’s executive vice president and chief operating officer Leonard Sandridge addressed the latest budget concerns in a university-wide memo sent Sept. 11, which addressed plans for dealing with the latest round of reduction.
“In order to meet the required state budget reduction, schools and libraries will be asked to reduce state expenditures by 2.5 percent on average in the current fiscal year. Administrative units will be asked to reduce state expenditure budgets by 3 percent on average,” Sandridge wrote.
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why doesn't steger just take a pay cut to show he's committed to the faculty? -- probably because he's too greedy
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Steger won't take a cut for the same reason when the University Bookstore laid off staff, no one from the worst performing department -- least of all any senior management -- were laid off. "Thick as thieves," as they say.
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According to the headline, faculty is safe, it is the facult that need to worry. :)
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Even if Steger reduced his pay by half, his salary would be barely cover the cost of two faculty members (once benefits and salary are taken into account). However, professors many years ago (when inflation is taken into account) were paid even less... if everyone at Tech took a 3-5% pay cut the problem would be solved and no one would be laid off.
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Were out of options
So as an academic institution committed to education we're going to cut faculty. Yea. That makes sense.
How much collectively is the school spending on sports I wonder?
Where is the real emphasis?
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Basing the decision on years of services risks getting rid of people who might actually be very good. Some of the best professors I had at VT were ones who had been there the longest.
I have an idea. Why not take a hint from Jack Welch and lay off the lowest-performing 10% of the faculty and staff? They undergo the same performance reviews that people in industry do, so it probably wouldn't be that hard to figure out who needs to go. We've all had professors that are horrible, and we've all dealt with surly staff members who seem to exist solely to make our lives more difficult, so why not start with them first?
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Actually, go call VT HR and ask how many lowest-performing staff we have. You'll find out that last year the total number of "Below Contributor" reviews was *6*. Only 6 staff members were officially performing "below normal" at the entire university. The entire system is flawed, from the ground up. And to those suggesting I take a 3-5% pay cut, I'm already earning 40% below the industry average for my position. VT is losing their best staff left and right, including me. Until we truly see the Chartered University Initiative take hold and free the university from this horribly managed state budget, students will continue to be served by the lowest 10% in the industry.
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Part of the problem is that it is almost impossible to lay off / fire tenured faculty. So pretty much any faculty member who has been at a university for more than 6-7 years is locked in unless they voluntarily relinquish tenure under such a system as is described herein. The only faculty and staff who can more easily be let go are untenured (young) faculty and staff. If we do a mass exodus of young faculty then as the faculty from the baby boomer generation start to retire (which will be very soon) then the size of the faculty will shrink significantly with no one in the queue to fill senior positions. This will mean you will be paying more in tuition and your class sizes will be significantly larger. Faculty that do remain will be overworked and unhappy. Cutting staff positions means longer lines at dining halls, fewer people to answer phones and take paperwork, less cleaning, there really is no winning no matter what approach is taken.
As for the bucket analogy, it makes sense, but does the university not get to decide which buckets the state money goes into?
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No, VT doesn't get to choose. The "bucket" is the 208 funds (E&G, Education and General).
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