Lombardi sketches budget strategy

By Sarah R. Buchholz, Chronicle staff

hancellor John V. Lombardi moved forward last week in preparing the campus for "a rather dramatic reduction" in its budget by posting a webpage and addressing the Faculty Senate about impending decisions. Lombardi indicated that, in light of the proposed budget from the House of Representatives and other deliberations by lawmakers, the campus necessarily will become smaller in a painful, yet orderly, process, parts of which will take more than a year, particularly where they involve cutting academic programs.

     The order in the process involves three categories of University expenses Lombardi will move through sequentially, cutting where he can in Category I, "items that do not serve directly the teaching or research interest of the institution," before moving to Category II, "programs and activities and things that in one way or another do touch on the teaching and research mission." The second category is much larger than the first, he said, and includes administration and Athletics. Although the work done in many of the items in the first two categories may be "important and valuable and terrific," he said, the goal of the process is to protect Category III, teaching and research itself, as much as possible.

      "If we get to Category III and any plan that we have to do affects faculty, we, of course, immediately trigger a whole series of very precise and effective systems of review that involve both the contracts and things related to union arrangements" as well as Faculty Senate requirements for program consideration, Lombardi said. "The minute that we know that we're gonna have to do that, that's the minute that we trigger these formal processes and move in precise lockstep with what those processes require of us because then we are in very, very serious territory.

      "Now, when I say 'serious territory,' it's important to recognize that even before we get there, we will have done some pretty serious and unhappy things to some very important people in our university. We will have had to eliminate programs, which, while they're not the teaching and research programs of the University, nonetheless serve very significant constituencies of ours and probably many of them, if not almost all of them, serve those constituencies at the highest possible level of quality."

      The webpage on the fiscal situation (www.umass.edu/budget) contains Lombardi's five-page memo "Anticipating the Campus Response to FY04 Budgets," as well as four tables of information, including the current capital plan; the general operations budget plan for the current year and coming three years; the general operations base budget for the current year and previous three years; and a summary of the last three years of reductions.

      "The purpose of trying to do this in such an elaborate and formal way is to make sure we're all on the same page," he said. "And when we get new information that is reliable and valid that we can put up, we will put it up and distribute it to everybody.

      "And I am eager to receive the words of wisdom of all of you and your friends, neighbors and relatives directly to me and about these issues ... if you think there's a refinement or addition or focus that we need to pay special attention to. I'm not in any sense possessed of some simple formula to resolve this."

      Lombardi noted that combined with the cuts of the last two fiscal years, if the House budget numbers stand, the University will have been asked to reduce its operating budget by nearly 30 percent over that time.

      "This is not easy to do, especially in institutions like ours that are seriously challenged on our fiscal base, who have a tremendous amount of deferred maintenance, who have major capital issues to address, and who are not large," he said.

      Lombardi said the cuts required would depend on the final budget and that he was loathe to decide and announce cuts that might, in the end, not have to be made; however, he also indicated that some cuts certainly would be in order and that the proximity of the start of the coming fiscal year requires the administration to begin moving forward with planning.

      Toward that end, he has formed groups representing different constituencies of the campus to discuss the budget-cutting process. Committees of alumni, the UMass Amherst Foundation, undergraduates, graduate students, faculty and staff have been formed and can offer feedback and ask questions, as well as receive information.

      "These advisory committees are not to replace or supplant any existing governance or administrative structure," he said. "Their purpose is to reach into constituencies of the institution so that we can speak directly to those constituencies who may not be captured in the normal, formal process of consultation and administration that goes on in the University."

      Lombardi said he expected the Senate budget to be finished the second week of June and that the campus could then move forward with final decision-making.