LARAMIE, Wyo. (AP) - At least 70 vacant faculty and staff positions at the University of Wyoming will be eliminated and looking at program cuts under a plan announced by new President Laurie Nichols to find $50 million in savings.
The reductions are a result of cuts in the university’s state aid because of a downturn in Wyoming’s energy extraction industry. For the two-year budget period that begins July 1, UW faces a loss of nearly $41 million in state funding. In addition, the university needs to reallocate about $9 million internally to cover costs related to a new financial and reporting system, increased utility expenses and other needs that the Legislature said it could not fund.
“We don’t have enough time to be extremely strategic in reducing ongoing expenses for the fiscal year that starts July 1, but we believe this plan will get us where we need to be,” Nichols said. “It does appear we will be able to make this first round of reductions without employee layoffs, and that is certainly a positive.”
UW spokesman Chad Baldwin said the 70 vacant positions to be cut are scattered across the campus.
“It’s faculty and staff, but a significant number is faculty positions,” Baldwin told the Casper Star-Tribune (https://bit.ly/1sApoyP ).
Additional savings would come from standardizing the teaching load for faculty members; severely limiting temporary faculty appointments; offering a retirement incentive to some longtime employees; and eliminating overtime pay.
Other potential cost savings could come from reorganizing academic and non-academic units; reducing, eliminating or combining non-essential services and programs; studying staffing levels; and looking at outsourcing some UW operations.
UW is expected to announce which programs will be cut by September.
In the long term the plan proposes, among other things, to diversify revenue sources, with less reliance on increases in state support and develop a plan for tuition and fees, along with enrollment growth.
“Budget reductions of this magnitude are never easy or popular. I completely understand the concerns across campus about the potential impacts of reductions,” Nichols says. “But, I also know that it is possible for an institution to go through significant reductions, yet retain strengths, and become more strategic and innovative in thinking.
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Information from: Casper (Wyo.) Star-Tribune, https://www.trib.com
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