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Statement from Provost Charlena Seymour

October 17, 2008

To: Members of the Faculty, Deans, Directors and Department Heads and Chairs
From: Charlena Seymour, Provost and Senior Vice Chancellor for Academic Affairs

The overall impact to the campus of the Governor's mid-year reductions in the state budget has already been shared with you by Chancellor Holub. Today I want to let you know as much as I can about the impact of these cuts on Academic Affairs, and especially on faculty recruiting.

The campus strategy outlined by the Chancellor is to meet the cuts for the rest of this fiscal year primarily with one-time funds, giving us time to make the necessary base budget adjustments by the beginning of FY2010 next July. We will also be pursuing that strategy in Academic Affairs.

While no part of the campus can avoid making reductions, our ability to recruit and retain excellent faculty clearly lies at the core of our continued success. One need only look at the impact of the outstanding new faculty members we have been able to bring to campus over the past few years to see the evidence of an essential truth: the success of the institution rises and falls on the strength of the faculty. I therefore want to make it very clear that, despite the financial challenges we now face, critical faculty hiring will continue as broadly and as quickly as our circumstances allow.

Naturally, given the scale and timing of the state budget cuts, we will have to evaluate all our activities, including ongoing faculty searches. I met earlier today with the Academic Deans, and asked them to evaluate all current searches in terms of their impact on our core research and teaching mission. They will provide me with the results of that analysis, and the prioritization of their searches that follows from it, by Monday, October 27. While events demand that we move quickly, it is also important that we provide some opportunity for the Deans to consult with departments and programs in making these critical assessments.

At the same time, the Chancellor will be determining the specific budget reduction targets for each executive area, including Academic Affairs. When I receive the target for Academic Affairs I will establish targets for each school and college, taking into account the information provided by the Deans. At that point I will work with each Dean to explore all possible options for meeting the budget reduction target within the college, and from that discussion I will be able to recommend to the Chancellor faculty searches that should be exempted from the current campus-wide halt to hiring. I am hopeful that these decisions can be made expeditiously, with minimal delay to ongoing search processes.

These kinds of choices are now being faced by most colleges and universities, public and private. In our case, it is essential that we maintain the momentum we have built over the past few years and emerge from the current financial downturn well-positioned for future success. Our plans should be shaped by the recognition that, in hard economic times, the opportunity we provide to students and families in the Commonwealth is more important than ever. They will count on us to maintain our strength, and they will appreciate everything we do to remain responsive and vibrant. The faculty - both those of you on campus today and those who will join us in the next few years - will be key to our success.

One of the most remarkable characteristics of this campus is our capacity to remain focused on our core strengths even in the midst of challenge. It shows in everything we do, and it has served us well over the years. This is clearly not the kind of situation we would choose for ourselves, but it is something we know how to deal with. By any measure we are a better institution today than we were before the last economic downturn, and with your continued support I have no doubt that we will emerge from the newest one with our strength intact and our focus clearly fixed on greater success in the future.

I am very grateful to all of you for your ingenuity and sacrifice during times like these. It is truly what makes this institution distinctive.