The Compass

Issue date: 2/17/10 Section: News

Marya Leatherwood, vice president of Academic Affairs, took questions and comments from GSC faculty and staff in a called meeting about more budget cuts on Friday.

Media Credit: Lauren Blais Faculty and staff came to the mike to address possible cuts in the called meeting on Friday.

Leatherwood turns the mic over to Oconee so a faculty member can speak. The Oconee campus participating via teleconferencing using the projector.

Leatherwood and Paul Glaser, who is the vice president of Business and Finance, answered questions from faculty and staff.

The CE auditorium was packed as faculty, staff and some students gathered to hear admins talk about budget cuts they were having to draft for the BOR by Saturday.

Media Credit: Lauren Blais Leatherwood listens as Oconee faculty member Dan Cabaniss speaks, his image presented on the projector screen, in the called meeting with faculty and staff Friday afternoon.

Some areas of the campus, such as the ACCT center, closed as faculty and staff attended a called meeting concerning budget cuts on Friday.

On Thursday morning Marya Leatherwood and other GSC administrators were told that they had two days to produce a plan outlining deeper budget cuts for the Board of Regents.

Leatherwood, who is the vice president for Academic Affairs, said BOR Chancellor Erroll Davis informed them that the University System of Georgia could be required to make an additional $300 million in budget cuts for the state's 35 colleges and institutions.

"This translates into a cut for GSC of $3.37 million, coupled with the over $2 million we were instructed to take out of our planning cycle," Leatherwood said. "We're talking about significant cuts."

The Continuing Education auditorium was packed as Leatherwood met with faculty and staff Friday. She and other administrators wanted to seek input and "hopefully dispel some of the misinformation out there," Leatherwood said.

On Thursday the Atlanta Journal-Consitution published Chancellor Enroll Davis' comments that the state's education budget was so short it would require a tuition hike of 77 percent to make it up.

"Please help us to help (students) understand that was taken out of context," Leatherwood said. "I cannot fathom that (a 77 percent increase in tuition) is going to be the case."

The USG office has asked each of the colleges and universities to develop a plan to reduce their state budget and that plan is to be submitted to the system office by noon Saturday.

"For the purpose of this planning exercise, we were asked to assume no tuition increase," Leatherwood said. "That doesn't necessarily mean we may not experience a tuition increase. It simply means for the sake of this exercise we were asked to assume no tuition increase."

Faculty and staff from both campuses were given an opportunity to provide input during the meeting, with Oconee faculty participating via teleconferencing. Some expressed concern over salary reductions.

"We are not going to propose laying people off," Leatherwood said. "We are not going to propose salary reductions," because those become permanent, and GSC salaries are already among the lowest in the state compared to peer institutions.

Personal services, consisting of faculty and staff salaries, account for over 70 percent of GSC's budget Leatherwood said.

"Our salaries are what we have to be able to attract the best and the brightest to come work with our students," Leatherwood said, "(Faculty and staff) are our largest asset. You are where our intellectual capital is. Our inventory is between your ears."

Salaries themselves aren't on the chopping block, but work days are.

Once again, the dreaded 'f-word,' Leatherwood said. Furlough days.

"I don't know if this affects everybody else the way it does me," one professor said, "but I know that any more furlough days are really going to hurt me."

During the past school year, GSC faculty and staff have had six furlough days.

Glaser said that furlough days may be the only alternative to a percentage reduction in salaries.

"A furlough day for GSC amounts to close to $90 thousand. So you can see what six furlough days gets you, you can see what 10 furlough days can get you. Ten furlough days is $900 thousand, a big part of this thing.

Glaser said that they were only making suggestions at this point and nothing was definite.

"The Executive Council will be making the decision about this whole thing, not me," Glaser said. "I just happen to be one member."

Dan Cabaniss, faculty member of Oconee, wondered if it was possible to publicize furlough days more. He noted that this year, GSC set the days during holidays to avoid disrupting teaching. Cabaniss suggested that furlough days be more obvious, so that parents and students can be made more aware of the effects of budget cuts.

Some faculty and staff in he audience wondered if GSC's efforts to create more four-year programs would be curtailed due to budget cuts. The school has submitted Letters of Intent for eight four-year programs to the Board of Regents.

Leatherwood said they had a productive meeting with representatives and a consultant from the System about the education components for the eight LOIs submitted by GSC.

Maryellen Cosgrove, of the school of buiness, education, health and wellness, said she had conversed with the USG and that their responses were positive.

"They thought we were poised for growth and we can deliver, too," Cosgrove said. "So, let's be optimistic. Cautiously."

A professor stood and apologized for not understanding the budgetary process. However, she said, when times are tough for her, she cuts back on luxury spending. And she never thought about not feeding her own kids when she has to make those cuts.

"I think what we're doing (at GSC) is we're feeding our kids, intellectually, and we're providing instruction and anything that's going to damage that, we cannot mess with," she said.

The professor said that it was hard to see the construction of new buildings (such as the new parking deck and Academic IV building, to be completed next summer) and the effort being put into the landscaping and then be asked to take on more furlough days, when faculty salaries were already so low in relation to other USG colleges.

"All this does affect morale, tremendously, and I'll just tell you, morale is low," she said.

It was difficult not to let that affect one's teaching, she said, and asked the administrators to take morale into account when they considered budget cuts.

"(C)ut back everything that you possibly can before you furlough teachers or do anything that's going to mess with the 'food' of the institution," she said.

Leatherwood said that there was money specifically earmarked for costs like maintenance, landscaping and the building of new structures.

"I want to be sure everybody's working with the correct information in respect to that," Leatherwood said. "We don't have the ability to shift those things... it's not the same pot of money."

Leatherwood outlined GSC's proposed cuts. Aside from more furlough days (probably 10 of them), canceling staff searches, canceling faculty replacement searches, eliminating GSC-funded student workers and closing the pool were on the list.

There are infrastructure items to consider, Leatherwood said. It costs GSC almost $200 thousand to keep the pool up and it is aging, she said. Paul Glaser, vice-president of Business and Finance, later said that it was likely the pool would be closed, and that this was something that they'd considered for years.

Lisa Watson, PE professor, objected to closing the pool, saying it serves a number of people in the community as well as GSC employees and students.

"We are at a time where we're really supposed to be focused on prevention of disease, so we can keep insurance costs down, keep ourselves healthy," Watson said.

Student worker, Cory Howe, said that if the pool is closed, not only will he lose the benefit of exercise, he will also lose his job.

"I think this goes to show that when we're faced with things like this, it's human nature to think about 'how is this going to impact me?'" Leatherwood said. "It takes us a while to figure out how is this going to impact us before we can start thinking about other alternatives. Not just how it's going to impact 'me.'"

One professor asked why administrators, in particular those with six-figure salaries, weren't taking their share of cuts.

Glaser said, "The question has been posed (to the Chancellor) and who knows what the end result may be. We were asked to also look at percentage reduction in salaries. I don't know what the System office has or has not done. I'm under the impression they have cut a number of staff."

An audience member asked about the cost of implementing the ADP payroll system, run by Automatic Data Processing, a company based in New Jersey. The Board of Regents mandated all schools use ADP except the University of Georgia and Georgia Tech.

Leatherwood and Glaser acknowledged some of the troubles ADP has caused, including pushing more work onto the staff. The cost of the system was unknown.

Professor and faculty senate member, John O'Sullivan, suggested the organization of a budget committee consisting of faculty, staff and students.

"We might be doing this again in six months, so maybe we should form a budget committee now so that we will have people involved, working on this now," O'Sullivan said.

"It's not the most ideal situation and you're right," Leatherwood said.

She told O'Sullivan that as soon as she learned the USG wanted additional cuts to be made, she decided to have meetings with faculty, staff and students on campus.

Though GSC does not have an official budget committee, the current crisis could pave the way for one in the future.

"(I)t's a start, at least, to open up that dialog," Leatherwood said.

Anita Turlington, English professor, asked if the faculty and staff could see a copy of the budget. "We are making these suggestions in the dark because we don't know what the budget is," she said.

Paul Glaser said there are "umpteen" versions of the budget, because it changes constantly, but he could put a three-page summary online.

Leatherwood praised the student leaders she met with right before the faculty-staff meeting. She said they had come up with good ideas about ways to be frugal, even though they were displeased about the possible cuts.

"The students are getting ready to take action," she said.

Students have already set up a Facebook page along with others from USG schools. Also, they're planning to march on the state capitol on March 15, the day GSC students will return from spring break.

GSC will be open that day, but Leatherwood asked faculty to be understanding if students choose to go to the march in Atlanta.

As the subject heats up about what schools cost the state, it is recognized that USG schools are one of the state's major economic engines. According to Leatherwood, a study for fiscal year 2008 showed that the combined economic impact of the 35 colleges and institutions across the state of Georgia was $12.1 billion.

GSC alone was estimated to account for $188 million.

"In addition to over 400 full-time employees we have on our campuses, we impact our surrounding communities in terms of our spending and in terms of the spending our students do," Leatherwood said.

"Despite all of this, we are going to face rather difficult decisions."

Leatherwood finalized her comments by encouraging faculty and staff with additional suggestions to e-mail them to her and to Glaser. "Let us know and we will try to sort through them as best we can as we put this plan together," she said.

The USG plans will be gathered over the weekend and presented to the Board of Regents and to the General Assembly next week. GSC will receive the plan of action on Monday.

"It will be at that time we will be able to respond," Leatherwood said, "because we will then know exactly what we may be dealing with."



Keep up with our updates on the budget situation by joining our Facebook group, GSC Compass.

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