Last week, as part of a spending reduction plan to meet a $974 million shortfall in the current fiscal year, Governor Tim Kaine announced that the state would cut 7 percent of its contribution to UVA, which comes to $10.6 million.
“We had planned for 15 percent as the Governor asked us to,” says Colette Sheehy, vice president for management and budget, referring to Kaine’s request that all state agencies submit proposals on how to cut 5, 10 and 15 percent from their budgets.
The cuts will impact about 8,000 employees in the academic division, says Sheehy, but that does not mean that jobs will be lost.
“We will not lay anyone off,” says Sheehy. “We encourage our department heads and our deans to hold positions vacant that they currently have vacant.” In the proposal, the University reported that 11 positions would be affected, but “through attrition and not layoffs,” says Sheehy.
Compared to many state universities, UVA gets off relatively easily. Virginia Tech, for instance, is having to lay off three workers and another 50 positions are affected. Only 8.2 percent of UVA’s $2.2 billion budget comes from the state, though that budget includes the University of Virginia at Wise, which is losing about $750,000 of state funding.
UVA employees, however, won’t benefit from the previously planned 2 percent salary increase. Governor Kaine has deferred that increase, originally slated for November, until July. And even then, says Sheehy, Kaine needs to re-evaluate if the state can afford it.
Susan Carkeek, vice president and chief human resource officer, says that the University has never used layoffs to balance the budget. “There are 300 vacant positions currently at the University and we have enough turnover that if we plan ahead, we can manage a lot of budget cuts,” she says.
UVA has a contingency fund that can be used for emergencies, among other things. This year, that money will most likely be spent on utilities. “Frankly, we totally underestimated the electric increase,” says Sheehy.
Each department and school will be assigned target reductions, but the University will allow them to manage the cuts the way they need to. Sheehy says that each department and the University as a whole need to plan for cuts not only for this fiscal year, but be prepared for more coming in the future. Next year’s reductions, she says, are likely to be higher.
“There will be another reduction on top of this reduction,” she says. “We’ll try to keep as much flexibility as we can in what little reserve I have to address what could be a larger impact next year.”
One thing is certain: Tuition will increase. The problem is that it’s too early to say by how much. The administration will present its proposal to the Board of Visitors in April.
But in the meantime, libraries will need to reduce the purchase of new material, computer replacement will slow down, and the overall cuts will impact both the building maintenance and the grounds maintenance. “We’ll try to stretch the people we have doing more work,” says Sheehy. “But we’ll probably end up with deferring some maintenance.”
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