Campus Budget
Note to the Campus
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November 5, 2008
To: Faculty, Staff and Students
As part of our ongoing efforts to communicate openly regarding the budget process here at UMass Amherst, I wanted to provide the campus community with updated information, and also to respond to some of the suggestions that came from many of you.
One overriding theme that emerged, on the part of many on campus, is a strong desire to look at energy usage and consumption as a way not only to cut costs, but to do our part as a campus to preserve and protect the environment.
I agree this must be a priority, and will formally ask the Environmental Performance Action Committee to review all these suggestions and develop plans to implement any cost savings ideas that can be put in place. Also, I will ask this group to seek additional comment and discussion and to issue a web-based report to the entire campus community on energy savings options. We will use this as a basis for taking concrete steps to cut energy costs wherever possible. This sort of efficiency must be part of our planning.
Next, many students and staff members expressed a strong desire to have their voices heard on the Budget Planning Task Force that I announced in the last message to campus. To respond to this, we will expand this group to include four staff employees and three student members. Our plan is to finalize this committee membership, which will also include 14 faculty representatives from across the campus, and begin committee meetings right away.
The 14 faculty members, appointed by the Faculty Senate leadership, are: William Richards Adrion, Computer Science; Carol Barr, Sport Management; Mari Castañeda, Communication; Kathleen Debevec, Marketing; Joseph Goldstein, Mechanical and Industrial Engineering; Mzamo Mangaliso, Management; Ernest May, Music and Dance; John McCarthy, Linguistics; W. Brian O’Connor, Biology; Barbara Osborne, Veterinary and Animal Sciences; Max Page, Art; Robert Pollin, Economics; Ralph Whitehead, Journalism; and Robert Wilson, Hospitality and Tourism Management.
While this committee is important, I want us to keep the lines of communication to the entire campus open, and I encourage you to share thoughts, reactions, ideas and suggestions going forward via the special budget website at www.umass.edu/chancellor/budget.html. We’ll be sure to update this, and also to provide fairly regular messages via e-mail and through the “In the Loop Weekly” electronic newsletter.
We’ve heard from many of you over the past weeks, and we’ll be sharing these ideas with the committee and with others. It is critical that we all contribute to our institution’s success. I know these are difficult times, but I do believe that together we can emerge as a stronger community and an even better university, and I’m encouraged by the passion and support that UMass Amherst has in its faculty, staff and students.
Robert C. Holub, Chancellor
