Univ. may put employees on unpaid leave

University President Dan Mote said yesterday the university is bracing for a second budget cut and is prepared to enact furloughs for all employees to help chop away at the state's $200 million budget deficit.

In a campus-wide e-mail yesterday, Mote wrote that if Gov. Martin O'Malley (D) signs an executive order announcing five furlough days for state employees, the university will participate. Statewide furloughs, or involuntary unpaid days off, will save the state about $40 million.

The remaining $160 million will come from budget reductions within the next two weeks. The university will likely share in the budget cut, but the exact amount probably won't be determined until after updated state revenue estimates are released next week, Mote said.

John Blair, the university's director of budget and fiscal analysis, said "the picture keeps getting worse and worse as the year goes on."

The university had about 1 percent of its budget cut earlier this year and implemented a hiring freeze to keep costs down. But until the size of the second reduction is known, Mote said the university can only plan and wait.

"People are asking questions, it's necessary to get out the information," Mote said. "It's not a problem caused by the state. It's a national, international problem of some significance, and we'll have pull together and adapt to it. We won't really know the scale of it for some time."

In an interview on Friday before the e-mail was sent out, Mote said he "would prefer to see furloughs rather than layoffs." Mote has said in the past that because the university's budget is largely labor costs, tactics such as hiring freezes, layoffs or furloughs are necessary to close any budget gaps.

University Senate Chair Kenneth Holum said students will be minimally impacted by the furlough.

"It's part of the impact of the current recession," Holum said. "It's bad for everybody. It will affect university employees, but we will try to minimize the effect on students."

The exact structure of the furloughs isn't known yet, but talk so far has focused on a tiered furlough where those making less than $40,000 would have two days off; those making between $40,000 and $60,000 would have four days off; and those who make more than $60,000 would have five days off, Blair said. The university is also considering shutting down completely for one day.

"There are certain advantages [to the entire campus closing]," Blair said. "If we close down the campus, we save the cost of operating the buildings. We're looking at closing for spring break because we're closing down for two days already."

Dale Anderson, the director of university human resources, said the university is also looking at spreading the days out over time in addition to examining spring and winter break for furlough days.

Yet the university must also take students' needs into account as they plan for furloughs where staff would have the day off possibly during the school year. Blair said Dining Services and the Department of Transportation Services would have to staff the shuttles and dining halls. Blair said the university closing while school is in session is something the university will "avoid at all costs."

Greg Johnson, the president of the American Federation of State, County, and Municipal Employees Local 1072, which represents university workers, said he would meet "immediately" with the university's human resources department to protect staff members with lower-paying jobs.

"The university has to realize hard times will be with us awhile," Johnson said. "We have to be economical in all areas of university action."

Blair said the university will work to minimize the effects of the furloughs on employees who are not as capable of absorbing a loss of income.

"We want to ensure that those who can least afford it will be hurt the least," Johnson said.

Non-state supported university departments such as Dining Services, Resident Life and the Athletics Department also face furloughs, Mote said. Money saved from those employees will go back to the state; none of the money will go back to the university budget, he said.

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