Two of the larger employee groups on campus are urging university administrators to re-consider their approach to trimming budgets in order to avoid layoffs of staff and faculty.
A sharp drop in stock markets has cut or eliminated expected income from investments, forcing all universities to review their budgets for new areas to cut spending. In a budget update released last week Western projected a possible loss of investment income from non-endowed funds at $46.25 million this year and the following two years.
To balance its budgets, individual departments and units must cut spending by an average of 5.5 per cent in each of the next two fiscal years. The actual impact of the cuts will not be known until next month, after individual budgets have been developed reflecting the cuts.
University of Western Ontario Faculty Association (UWOFA) President Mike Carroll says the university should look at a variety of areas, such as halting construction, trimming administration ranks and opening the door to a short-term budget deficit.
“We want to make sure, to the extent positions are cut, we would also argue that we should take a very careful look at the number of administrators,” says Carroll.
Carroll says construction and renovation projects, including renovations to Stevenson-Lawson and the UCC, could be halted.
“The argument behind Stevenson-Lawson is that they need the space because academic departments are going to be moving in,” says Carroll. “But each of those academic departments that will be moving has a current home – they’re not out in a field somewhere.”
He also questions the need for renovations in the University Community Centre to add extra classrooms when undergraduate enrolment is being held at a stable level.
“There is an awful lot of construction going on, where we’re suggesting some of it could be put on pause,” he says. “It would be nice to have all this construction done but the issue is shouldn’t it be re-evaluated.”
Provost and Vice-President (Academic) Fred Longstaffe says it is critical to complete the two projects since many classrooms have been lost during ongoing renovations across campus.
“The renovations that the university is undertaking in the UCC will provide additional classrooms needed for the 2009-10 academic year,” he says, adding renovations to create Stevenson Hall and Lawson Hall (currently the Stevenson-Lawson Building) are needed to provide additional space for the departments waiting to move in.
The Faculty of Arts & Humanities (Classical Studies, Philosophy, Women’s Studies and Feminist Research, Program in Writing and Rhetoric and Professional Communication, as well as the Department of History, are “in a situation that has become ever more serious given the increases over recent years in the numbers of people, especially graduate students, in these areas.”
“Completion of the renovations of the Stevenson Hall and Lawson Hall are the critical component of relieving that congestion in a timely fashion, and giving these units academic homes that reflect their considerable contributions to Western,” says Longstaffe. “Now is the time to finish this project.”
Carroll also questions a Board of Governors policy that requires a balanced budget as well as a small surplus.
“Going into debt for a little bit, even a couple of years, would be another solution. In other words challenge the claim that we have to balance our budget,” he says. “In these times, going into debt to some extent may be the appropriate response.”
Carroll says employees should be spared from layoff until all possible alternatives have been considered in a comprehensive and reasonable way.
“We have to be convinced that these other alternatives have been fairly considered and I don’t think they have,” he says. “We can’t go along with the notion that the only way to solve the budget problem is through staff reductions and layoffs.”
David Empey, University of Western Ontario Staff Association President, says he understands the need to bring the possibility of layoffs to staff attention so they are mindful of what the future may hold.
“On the other hand, I don’t think I’m convinced that layoffs are required at this point,” he says, adding he’s hopeful the restricted hiring practice (only mission critical positions will be approved) along with retirement incentives will help to reduce next year’s budget.
“I feel there would be a fair savings there and that saving otherwise could be found in a way that doesn’t result in layoffs,” he says.
Empey says any sort of staff layoff would hurt the services provided throughout campus.
“We’re leaner in a way that would make it more difficult,” he says. “I don’t know how layoffs could be accomplished without reducing services of some kind. There just aren’t extra people lying around that aren’t gainfully occupied.”
Empey says UWOSA is wants to sit down with administration to discuss other creative ways to avoid any cuts to staff.
“Before we even contemplate the notion of layoffs we ought to examine every possible reduction and expenditure,” he says. “Small things add up.”
Longstaffe says discussions with UWOFA have already yielded a renewed agreement on phased retirement for faculty members and adds he would welcome suggestions from all quarters during what he refers to as a “time of heightened concern for the health of the institution and its people.”
In fact, all members of the campus community are invited to write to their unit head with ideas, suggestions and feedback on the budget and related matters. “These ideas can make a great deal of difference in helping us chart a successful course,” says Longstaffe.
The Provost’s Recommendations on Faculty Budgets will be released in mid-February and this year will also include a brief report on Support Unit budget recommendations.
