Colleagues

The UW's serious budget issues are on all our minds at this time. I have received many constructive suggestions from you regarding how to deal with them, which I appreciate.

There is no doubt that staff layoffs not only harm the institution, they also cause severe hardship to those directly impacted. While we read about such layoffs every day in the news as they occur all across our country, when they start to hit home they take on a much more personal meaning. The UW is approaching this difficult time as cautiously as possible - yet we must also be prudent and realistic as we look forward. This is the balanced approach that President Emmert is trying to project.

At this time, we do not know the extent of the budget reductions our College will be taking effective July 1, 2009. However, we are drawing up general contingency plans based on budget reductions of 8, 10 and 12% - as directed by the Provost. Given the continued slowing in tax revenues, it is possible that even larger budget reduction scenarios will come into play. We also need to return budgeted funds for the current year (FY 2009) and the level of this budgetary rescission may increase above current amounts as well.

The CFR BAC and our Elected Faculty Council have been deeply involved in these discussions and continue to advise my office on possible ways to allocate our expected reductions across the College and its various programs. These discussions are guided by the principles we outlined in November as posted to our CFR State Budget Information web site.

A recurring theme in suggestions and reactions received to date is that more creative alternatives should be examined as we strive to meet our budget reduction goals. Along those lines I'd like to offer a few comments.

We are considering partial FTE reductions across various units of the College as an alternative to staff layoffs. This alternative retains our work force - albeit at a reduced level of service - and is far less destructive on a personal level. If funding levels are restored, the work force would be able to be restored (wholly or partially). There are several HR issues to work through to use this alternative.

It's possible that some staff/faculty would prefer a reduced FTE for personal reasons. Having that information would be a helpful to our deliberations. So any partially or fully state-funded staff member (classified or professional) or tenured or tenure-track faculty wishing to voluntarily and permanently relinquish a fraction of their FTE, and thereby release state funds to be used elsewhere in the College, is free to submit a proposal to my office for consideration. Our evaluation, along with the supervisor's, will consider the impact an individual's FTE reduction might have on the College's ability to fulfill its mission and any adverse consequences that might increase costs on other aspects of the College. A mandated across-the-board salary reduction achieved through a permanent reduction in FTE for all College staff and/or faculty is not feasible; the tools for doing this do not exist and are not within our purview as an individual unit to develop.

At this time the Legislature is not considering funding an early retirement option for either UW staff or faculty. And, as far as we know, neither is the University. Of course, any staff or faculty member who voluntarily wishes to consider this option is always welcome to discuss this with me or their supervisor.

I hope this provides some additional food for thought as we move through this time. We welcome a continuing dialog on these and other issues. Thanks again and best wishes.