From the Dean: FY21 budget updates
Dear Colleagues,
The global pandemic has affected the economy, and higher education is no exception. As indicated by Chancellor Wrigley in his May 1 memo, all state agencies are developing plans for 14% budget cuts. All units at UGA have been asked to develop plans for 8%, 10%, and 12% cuts. Andy Garber and I have been working on a variety of scenarios to reduce our budgets while minimizing impacts to our core missions of instruction, research, and service and considering all options through a diversity, equity, and inclusion lens.
To help you understand the task we face, I would like to share with you a snapshot of our college budget. Our total budget is $34 million, and cut levels look like this:
- 8% is $2.7 million
- 10% is $3.4 million
- 12% is $4.1 million
Our current budget breaks down is as follows. Expenditure amount percent of total budget:
The majority of our budget is in personnel (items in blue are mostly or entirely personnel). These cuts have hit us in a year when we have very few failed searches, retirements, or resignations. To reach a $4.1 m cut, we will need all of us to come together and put our most creative and altruistic ideas on the table for consideration. For instance, we can work together to consolidate and streamline our course offerings to minimize the need for part-time faculty hires. Faculty members with endowed positions have the option to move a portion of their salaries and/or graduate assistant salaries onto their endowments, and those with grants and contracts can move salaries onto those funding sources as appropriate. (If you are in a position to do either of these things, please speak with your unit head.) While my goal is to avoid anyone losing their job, we may very well have to propose the elimination of some positions to reach the cut levels required. Thus, I look forward to your collaborative engagement to identify any areas where we can make changes that will enable us to meet our budget targets and preserve positions.
The cuts we are being asked to make are exclusive of any furloughs or pay cuts that may be determined by the University System of Georgia. Any decisions about furloughs or pay cuts will be made at the USG level, and we are not likely to have any input. However, senior administrators have advocated that any such cuts be done on a sliding scale that causes the least harm to the lowest paid employees.
We do not have a timeline for finalizing our budgets as the legislature has not yet convened to pass a state budget. As I receive information, I will share it with department heads, the Faculty Senate Steering Committee, and SRG leadership as well as with all of you. As with COVID-19, things are changing rapidly with the budget, but I will do my best to keep you informed.
Cuts of this magnitude will have significant short-term and long-term effects on all of our operations, and these will be difficult times for our community. I will be working with university leadership, our college leadership team, and all of you to make decisions that are consistent with our commitments to teaching, research, service, and to equity in keeping with the legacy of Mary Frances Early.
Denise A. Spangler
Dean