| TO: | All Faculty and Staff |
| FROM: | Office of the Chancellor |
| DATE: | September 10, 2002 |
| RE: | Proposed Budget Reductions |
As you are aware, today I am called upon to announce my proposal for reducing this university's budget by $7.5 million due to reductions in state support. Below is a list of the proposed reductions.
It was possible to work out the reduction proposals in such a way that virtually all programs of study were preserved, but these are still not easy cuts to consider. While no tenured faculty positions are on this list, some tenure track positions are, as are many staff positions. In total, this proposal calls for reducing the number of faculty and staff by 164.8 full-time equivalent positions. Of those, 110 FTE are filled positions.
This community will be diminished in losing the skills of each and every one of these individuals. I hope that other units with vacancies will work hard to keep as much of this talent within the University as possible. I also care deeply about the pain that this will bring to these individuals. We should all try hard to help these folks get through this very difficult time.
These are not decisions that any of us have taken lightly. I do believe that the proposed cuts preserve, to the greatest degree possible, this campus' priorities to provide an undergraduate education we can take pride in offering, as well as opportunities for faculty research and service to the state. However, we cannot continue to cut our budget without reducing the scope of services we are able to offer, and that fact is reflected in this proposal.
More detailed explanations about the cuts as well as a companion spreadsheet can be found on the UNL Web site (www.unl.edu). The Academic Planning Committee will receive the list of proposed reductions and soon will announce its plan for conducting hearings on the proposals prior to making recommendations.
I wish I had better news to share. I will continue to rely on you to help me in assessing these proposals with regard to the best long-term interests of this university.
- Harvey
Following is an itemized outline of the proposed cuts:
Chancellor's Office and Miscellaneous (Total Reduction $450,000)
Affiliated Organizations: Reduce support for Faculty Women's Club, Emeriti Association, and Innocents Society. ($10,000).
Operating: Reduce support for academic units. ($50,000).
Early retirements: Projected savings from early city campus-wide retirements, in response to early retirement incentive plans. ($400,000).
Senior Vice Chancellor for Academic Affairs (Total Reduction $3,135,186).
College of Architecture: Eliminate vacant faculty positions and vacant chair position in the Department of Community and Regional Planning. ($144,027).
College of Arts and Sciences: Eliminate Humanities Center ($96,652).
College of Business Administration: Eliminate state funding to the Council on Economic Education with hope program will continue with private funds. ($178,303).
College of Law: Reduce state support, partially replaced with increase in law student fees. ($300,000).
Teachers College: Capture potential administrative savings from possible college merger. ($245,000).
College of Human Resources and Family Sciences: Capture potential administrative savings from possible college merger. ($55,000).
NETV: Decrease distance education service and convert to automated classrooms. ($171,000).
Division of Continuing Studies: Eliminate the division as an administrative unit. Shift distance education support and selected programming to Office of Extended Education. Shift and reduce evening and weekend programming to Academic Affairs and to appropriate Colleges. Shift Independent Study High School and Conferences to self-sustaining basis. Eliminate support for Grand Island, North Platte, and Lincoln Learning Centers. Cease operating a hotel. ($896,824).
Vice Chancellor's Office, Academic Affairs: Reduce Summer Sessions budget by $1 million, resulting in eliminating Summer Session support of administrative stipends for department chairs, funding for non-credit programs including Nebraska Rep, International Teaching Institute, and Ross Film Theater, impose compensation cap on summer teaching faculty, employ tighter enrollment management criteria for summer sessions, and reduce other support for academic units by $48,380. ($1,048,380).
Institute of Agriculture and Natural Resources (Total Reduction $2,028,767)
South Central Research and Extension Center: Eliminate the Center but continue small research operation and veterinary medicine instructional program. ($661,707).
Administration: Eliminate or reduce administrative positions including the< District Director of South Central Research and Extension Center, the State 4H Director, an Associate Dean and the Facilities Coordinator position, and the Director of the School of Natural Resource Sciences. ($505,737).
West Central Research & Extension Center: Eliminate Veterinary Diagnostic Laboratory and shift testing to Lincoln Lab. ($211,370).
Communications and Information Technology: Reduce staffing. ($67,191).
Family Life Specialists: Eliminate two vacant positions. ($110,000).
Projected retirements: ($100,000).
Nebraska Forest Service and State Wide Arboretum. Merge the two units and reduce state support. ($200,682).
Learning Centers: Eliminate program support at Grand Island, North Platte and Lincoln Learning Centers. ($104,863).
Reduce support for Veterinary Student Contract funds: ($67,217).
Vice Chancellor for Business and Finance (Total Reduction $1,000,000).
Fiscal Affairs: Reduce two staff positions. ($53,060).
Operations Analysis: Eliminate student salaries for clerical support. ($5,000).
Human Resources: Discontinue focused technology support in unit. ($43,975).
Facilities Management: Eliminate 50 percent of state-funded painting and extend painting schedules. Transfer responsibility for maintenance and utility support to Transportation Services and Printing Services. Eliminate weekly pick-up of recycling containers in offices. Transfer capital project management staff to capital project budgets. ($773,232).
University Services: Reduce landscape services state support by transferring landscape construction oversight for new projects to capital project funding and eliminate smaller planting beds on campus. ($124,733).
Vice Chancellor for Student Affairs (Total Reduction $900,000).
Vice Chancellors Office. Eliminate student ombudsperson and reassign accounting activities to another business center. ($71,562).
Career Services: General reduction in support services. ($50,000).
Admissions: General reduction in services. ($31,947).
Registration and Records: Shift partial funding for maintenance of alumni records to alumni association and reduce staff support. ($49,872).
Financial Aid: Reduce processing capacity. ($28,119).
Multicultural Affairs: Salary savings. ($43,500).
Auxiliaries: Increase assessment to university program and facilities fees-funded units resulting in reduction of staff and services. ($300,000).
Fee Increases: Increase application, registration, and course audit fees. ($325,000).
Structural Changes:
Libraries: Currently funds are being spent to maintain branch libraries in Chemistry, Biology and Physics, and to rent commercial space for the overflow from Love Library. The total of these funds would be sufficient to finance the lease purchase of a library storage facility, with a savings of approximately $9 million over a 20-year period. Thus it is proposed to build a storage facility and when it is available, close the branch libraries for Chemistry, Physics, and Biological Sciences, move current material to Love and place outdated materials from throughout Love to the new facility.
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