Earlier this year President Machen asked all major units to prepare proposals for a 10% permanent reduction in state budget [appropriations] currently allocated to the unit. The Libraries were asked to identify budget cuts of $387,799 from the Health Science Center Libraries (HSCL) and $2.278 million from Smathers Libraries, for a total of $2,665,799.
Last week, we were informed that Libraries budget will be reduced by $642,296 (2.4%). The reductions are based on the Libraries priorities as submitted. This level of budget cuts does not require any faculty or staff layoffs or cuts in the materials budget.
The operations budget will be reduced by $66,250; OPS funding will be reduced by $232,978; and salaries and benefits will be reduced by $343,068. All of these cuts are from the Smathers Libraries budget; there are no cuts in the HSCL budget.
A Town Hall meeting on the Libraries 2009-2010 budget was held on Tuesday, May 26th. The PowerPoint presentation from that meeting provides additional details. It is available on the blog.
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I was not able to attend the Budget Town hall meeting. Can you please talk a little bit here in the blog about the $343,068 savings in salaries and benefits? I see on one of the slides that the savings came from three different categories, reassignments, resignations and retirements. Can you please list who was reassigned, who resigned and which positions lsited as retired are not, as of now, slated to be refilled?
ReplyDeleteThe salary funds that have been forfeited are from reassignments, a future retirement, and a resignation. In the order presented in the budget submission, these include the following:
ReplyDelete-- 3 staff reassignments (2.0 FTE) to Inter-Library Loan to fill vacancies resulting from resignations this spring, leaving unfilled a .5 FTE vacancy in Acquisitions, a .5 FTE vacancy in the Education Library and a 1.0 FTE vacancy in Library West;
-- 1 future faculty reassignment to Special & Area Studies to fill the vacant Rare Books Librarian, leaving unfilled a position in Cataloging;
-- 1 future faculty reassignment to the Education Library to fill a vacany resulting from a retirement next spring, leaving unfilled a .5 FTE in Library West and a .5 FTE in Administration for management of the Auxiliary Storage Facility (ALF) and preparation for the new SUS Shared Storage Facility;
-- 1 faculty vacancy in Government Documents resulting from a resignation this spring; and
-- 1 future staff vacancy in Marston resulting from a retirement through DROP later this year.
As I explained at the town meeting, these vacant positions will remain unfilled for the immediate future, but not necessarily indefinitely. As funds become available or as needs change, their status will be readdressed.
The loss of $642,296 this coming year, combined with the $953,612 lost in 2007-2008 and the possibility of additional cuts in 2010-2011, will means that new vacancies may also be subject to deferred replacement or filled through reassignment and national searches for permanent chairs for Marston, Library West, and Special and Area Studies Collections will be postponed.