95 employees face layoffs

by Sarah R. Buchholz, Chronicle staff

nxiously anticipated layoffs came Jan. 18 when the campus announced it was reducing its staff by 95 people in an effort to trim $3 million from its annual budget.
Approximately half of the layoffs were among classified staff and half from professional staff. At least 47 of the positions came from eliminating entire programs: University Child Care, the Foreign Language Resource Center, Regional Programs in Development, and the non-police security officers. Other areas that faced significant reductions were the Campus Career Network and Physical Plant. Five administrative support personnel, six computer support personnel, and 13 academic support personnel were laid off. And UMass Extension laid off three people.

     The layoffs are part of a series of steps designed to address a $15 million shortfall in the FY2002 budget. Other steps have included raising student fees for the upcoming semester, which should net about $8 million after assisting students on financial aid with the increase; allowing approximately 100 positions to be lost through attrition, which it is hoped will provide an additional $4 million in savings annually; and a 5 percent reduction in the budgets of each executive area.

     Because much of the savings from reducing personnel won't be realized until FY2003, when staff have left, in order to make up the remainder of the $15 million shortfall in the current fiscal year, short-term, temporary measures also are being taken to reduce the budget.

     The layoffs affect the entire campus, noted interim Chancellor Marcellette G. Williams.

     "You can't touch one part without knowing it affects other parts," she said the day the layoffs were announced.

     Because more than 80 percent of the campus budget goes to salaries and benefits, Williams said, when substantial cuts need to be made, personnel will be affected.

     "When you're faced with a traumatic [budgetary] situation, such as this one, dollars are people," she said. "It's so painful today. I haven't had a day like this in I don't know when for just that reason - people.

     "We're a family. It's important to take any step that we take with respect and care for each other because we have to. Hard and rough is not who and what UMass is."

     Williams also noted that the layoffs were not a reflection of employee performance but were decided based on programmatic needs.

     "This is an extremely difficult time for the University and its employees, and the future continues to cause us great concern," Williams said. "We will do all that is possible to assist those who are losing their jobs."

     The University is providing support through the Faculty and Staff Assistance Program, Human Resources and Training and Development (see related story).

     The cutbacks were greater than originally thought necessary. In early December, just after the Legislature passed the FY02 state budget, Williams said layoffs would total around 60. As the administration had more time to study the numbers, it became apparent that more cuts would be needed to address the shortfall. And with many campus employees eligible for the state's early retirement package, some positions slated to be cut may be vacated by a retirement rather than a layoff. In those cases, 80 percent of the funding for the position will return to the state, and the University will retain only a 20 percent savings.

     In addition, few employees have expressed interest in voluntary cost-cutting measures to date, according to union leaders.

     "I believe it's because they are permanent," said Donna Johnson, president of University Staff Associates/Massachusetts Teachers Association. Johnson said her union wanted to ensure that its members were aware of the long-term effects of cutting work hours on retirement. Members of Service Employees International Union Local 509, have until Feb. 15 to sign up for the voluntary savings.

     Johnson said USA/MTA would meet with its affected members Jan. 24 to advise them about resources available to staff being laid off.

          Union leaders expressed disappointment that they didn't learn of the planned cuts ahead of time.

     "We are all aware of the fact that this had to happen," said Johnson, whose union lost 16 positions in the layoff and is seeing a number of others fade away through attrition. "I just felt the University could have handled it a little bit differently." The unions were notified of layoff details after the media, she said. "It really doesn't sit well with me."

     Francis Martin, president of the Local 1776 of the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees, said his union, which had 27 members laid off, was aware that some staff in Physical Plant would be let go but was "shocked, really," by the elimination of the security personnel.

     "We had no idea they were going to do this thing to the security officers," he said.
"It's going to create a mess. You take 19 officers with nowhere to go in their own department; they're going to have to go to other departments." Under certain circumstances, laid off employees may "bump" employees with fewer years of service from positions the laid off employees are qualified to fill.

     Williams was scheduled to meet with union leaders Jan. 25 to discuss the budget. She said campus leaders are conducting "ongoing review, analysis, [and] generation of data. We have to have that in order to make informed decisions."

     Williams said a few more layoffs "here and there" might take place before the fiscal year ends but she does not anticipate another large number of them.

     Irene Starr, director of the Foreign Language Resource Center, said arrangements for relocating the center's physical resources have not been made yet. Closing the center not only involves laying off its three staff members, Starr said, but also will eliminate a graduate student position and 12 to 15 undergraduate jobs. The center provides students, faculty, and the community with materials, services, and facilities that support the teaching and learning of languages, literature, and culture. Until June 30, when the center is scheduled to close, the staff will continue to serve its audience, she said.

     "Our plan is to provide our usual excellent service for the spring of 2002," Starr said.
Although University Child Care (UCC) is being dismantled at the end of the spring semester, several staffers will remain on hand to meet flex-care arrangements through 2004.

     Approximately 60 adults, accompanied by several children, marched to the Whitmore Administration Building Tuesday to protest the UCC cut.