In the wake of less support from state appropriations as an overall part of its general fund budget, Eastern Michigan University has eliminated 36 administrative, faculty and staff positions. However, only five actual employees lost their jobs.
Of those who lost their jobs, one professional/technical employee was laid off and four administrative professionals were terminated during the month of June. The remaining people affected either returned to the faculty from AP positions or were bumped into other union positions. The moves were made as part of an overall plan to balance EMU's fiscal year 2004-05 budget.
Under a reduction plan that eliminated 26 actual administrative and staff positions, 14 positions were from the AP ranks. In addition to the four that were terminated, four APs returned to the faculty and six AP vacancies were eliminated, said Don Wood, director, employee relations.
All four terminated APs were offered severance packages, according to University policy, based on their position and number of years of service to the University, Wood said.
The other positions eliminated were from the union ranks. They included professional/technical (5.5 positions), clerical/secretarial (five positions), one athletic coach and a .25 full-time equivalent food service/maintenance employee, said Al Levett, executive director of budget management. Savings from these actions totaled $2.1 million, Levett said.
"The majority of those individuals were not directly impacted," Levett said. "There was (union) bumping in some cases."
Wood agreed.
"The majority of the displacements did result in unionized employees being moved to other unionized positions," Wood said.
In addition, the equivalent of 10 planned new faculty and lecturer FTE positions not created resulted in savings of an additional $640,000.
" Despite these cuts, we are nevertheless hiring 33 exceptionally, well-qualified new tenure-track faculty for fall," said Robert Van Der Velde, assistant vice president for academic affairs.
The elimination of positions is part of the University's nearly $7.3 million reduction in the FY 2004-05 general fund budget. Savings were identified strategically through an exhaustive process, with impact on all areas within the institution, Levett said. Academic Affairs, while taking the largest reduction in dollars, was protected from the full brunt of cost reduction with a reduced proportion of funding reduction than other divisions and areas within the University, Levett said.
State support for EMU has been reduced from 53 percent of operations in 1999, to 38 percent in fiscal year 2005, Levett said.
Because the University's actual expenses rose approximately $14.2 million for 2004-05, EMU still had to cover $7 million above and beyond the reduction plan through increases in revenue sources, including tuition and fees, Levett said.
"The budget increases are attributable to a continual increase in certain basic operational costs such as health care, utilities and the Michigan Public Schools Employee Retirement System (MPSERS)," said John Beaghan, interim vice president for business and finance. "We continuously try to control cost increases."
