Williams asks for support from faculty as campus begins budget reductions

By Sarah R. Buchholz, Chronicle staff

embers of the Faculty Senate discussed the campus budget with interim Chancellor Marcellette G. Williams at the senate's 600th meeting, Dec. 13.
Williams presented some of the administration's plans for dealing with an approximately $15 million shortfall in the current fiscal year. She and interim Vice Chancellor for Academic Affairs and Provost Charlena Seymour called on faculty to support the process of reducing the campus's expenditures.

     Seymour, who is responsible for planning a 5 percent reduction in spending across Academic Affairs, asked faculty to participate in the process.

     "What we are looking for is help for some of these problems that we are all facing," she said. "What we need are solutions.

     "We are trying to collect as much information as we can in a very short time." Seymour said she asked the deans of the schools and colleges to consult with faculty, staff and students as they prepare budget cuts.

     "We will come through this challenge, stronger than we are now," Williams said. "I know we will. But for that to happen, we must turn toward each other and trust in each other's integrity. I need to ask you to trust in my integrity and my commitment to the health of this institution.

     "I will not make any decisions that I believe would do harm to the University. I've been here too long and worked too hard ever to do that-and my tenure here pales in comparison to that of most of you. And I know you have worked hard, too hard, to let harm come to the academic core of this campus.

     I will make decisions. And to do that, I need to trust in your integrity-that at every level of the academic enterprise, people will be honest, respectful, and forthcoming with the information that we all agree we need in order to determine our course through the current situation."

     Asked about the sources of the $15 million shortfall, Williams explained that roughly $12 million is the Amherst campus share of the $25 million cut the state handed the University system. The additional $3 million is in spending commitments the campus made in anticipation of a modest increase officials guessed the campus might receive for the current year when planning for FY02 during sunnier fiscal times last year.

     Williams said 80 percent of the University's costs are in people. She endorsed a possible early retirement program under consideration by state officials because it would mitigate some of the pain of layoffs. Currently the campus plans to lay off approximately 60 people and leave 100 positions unfilled before the end of the current fiscal year.

     In addition to reducing spending, Williams said, the campus is attempting to increase its income through fundraising and a $495 undergraduate fee increase.

     Williams noted that she had heard concerns that $65 of the increase had been earmarked for Athletics. She explained that this did not represent an increase in the Athletics budget but a shifting of the source of the department's funding.

     "The $65 increase to Athletics in the service fee will allow the campus to utilize for general institutional purposes an equivalent amount of campus funds that had previously gone to support Athletics.

     "As with the $65 to Athletics, other monies added to the service fee will free up funds that can be used elsewhere to support the central mission of the campus."

     When asked by Finance and Operations Management professor Craig Moore whether Athletics would also be subject to budget cuts, Williams replied that it would.
Other questions included a discussion of how to inform trustees and legislators of the impact the cuts are having on campus and whether to continue to use the term 'excellence' to refer to the efforts of the campus.

     In response to another question from Moore, Williams and Seymour affirmed that the five percent cuts would not be applied across-the-board and that part of the budget reduction would involve a consideration of priorities in an effort to protect the core mission of the campus.