Skip to Navigation
University of Pittsburgh
Print This Page Print this pages

September 12, 1996

Budget cuts are handled in a variety of ways

According to a repre- sentative survey by the University Times of Pitt schools and administrative offices, most units have managed so far to avoid terminating current employees.

Layoffs since July 1 appear to be concentrated in a handful of recently reorganized units: the Office of Computing and Information Services, the Center for Instructional Development and Distance Education, and the arts and sciences administration offices.

The unit that has eliminated the largest number of jobs — and laid off the most employees — since July 1 is the Office of Computing and Information Services (CIS), one of the University's larger administrative units.

Out of 277 full-time positions, CIS eliminated 25. Eight of those were unfilled at the time.

Paul Stieman, associate vice chancellor for CIS, said the cuts were necessary to accommodate a reduction in CIS's compensation budget (he declined to specify the amount) and a reconfiguring of CIS services and priorities — staffing CIS's new customer help desk, for example, and eliminating full-time data entry jobs in favor of outsourcing data entry tasks.

On July 24, a few days before the 17 CIS staff members lost their jobs, CIS held an open house to recruit new employees. The timing may have seemed ironic, but Stieman said: "At that time, we had 32 vacancies that we were trying to fill. Since then, we've filled a number of those vacancies, and a number remain open.

"These are jobs that require a high level of technical expertise and specialized skills. Even as we've eliminated positions in some lower priority areas, we're continuing to have fairly significant turnover in some essential positions" such as information network technicians. "To a large extent, that's a function of competition in the local information services job market," Stieman said.

Like CIS, the College of General Studies (CGS) laid off 17 full-time staff this summer. But the CGS cuts were part of a college-wide reorganization that was linked to falling enrollments — and the reorganization took effect prior to the current fiscal year. Newly hired CGS Dean Robert L. Carter said he does not expect further job eliminations in the college this year. "We lost a third of our staff [17 of 51 people] last year. I think we've gone through all that we're going to go through," Carter said.

Arts and Sciences eliminated 16 staff jobs in a recent administrative merger of the Faculty of Arts and Sciences, FAS graduate studies office and the College of Arts and Sciences. Six of those jobs were vacant at the time, and three of the remaining 10 employees have found new Pitt jobs at comparable salaries, according to Richard Howe, FAS associate dean for administration.

The central administration cut FAS's employee compensation budget by $1.1 million this year, Howe said.

The Center for Instructional Development and Distance Education (CIDDE) went through "a complete reorganization" to increase efficiency and adjust to changing demands for services, CIDDE Director Diane Davis said. Three staff jobs were cut when CIDDE eliminated its Visual Communications Service; one of the three employees transferred to a new job within CIDDE. CIDDE laid off two other employees — an administrator and a systems analyst — and added a new administrator, an associate director for technology, to head high-priority, high-tech services.

Davis said the center eliminated its Visual Communications Service in response to decreased faculty demand for CIDDE's traditional graphics services, such as materials for poster presentations, and increased demand for instructional computing services.

The net reduction in CIDDE's compensation budget was $30,000, Davis said.

Retirements of several long-term employees allowed the Office of Student Affairs to offset a large portion of the $214,000 in compensation cuts required under the University budget, according to an office administrator.

Gary Houston, executive assistant vice chancellor for Student Affairs, said one vacant position also was left unfilled. "Basically, the cuts that were made came from an unfilled position and from early retirements," Houston said. "We have yet to meet 100 percent of the goal and we're currently exploring how we will do that." No Student Affairs employees have been laid off yet, Houston said, "but I regretfully anticipate that there will be a couple [of layoffs]. I can't say if it is going to be one, three, four, but there will be some layoffs." The Office of Institutional Advancement met its $174,500 compensation reduction goal mainly by leaving five positions vacant, said Interim Vice Chancellor for Institutional Advancement Margaret McDonald. Several long-term employees also retired or left Pitt and were replaced by staff hired at lower salaries, she said.

By gradually trimming its technical services staff from 69 last year to 53 full-time employees currently, the University Library System (ULS) absorbed a $200,000 cut in its current compensation budget without laying off anyone, according to ULS Director Rush Miller.

"Last spring, we adopted a policy giving preference to technical services employees in filling any available jobs in ULS," Miller said. "Of the 13 tech service positions we've eliminated so far, a few of those people have left ULS on their own to take jobs outside the University. The rest have found jobs within ULS. We have not had one forced resignation, and no layoffs. We hope never to have to do that." But Miller said he hopes to further reduce ULS's technical services operation by continuing to automate the system's book cataloging and by outsourcing other labor-intensive cataloging.

In the School of Engineering, Dean Gerald Holder said all cuts came through normal turnover in personnel. A few temporary positions also were left unfilled, he said. "We've had a reduction in staff, but no one has been laid off," Holder said. "It's been pretty seamless." Holder said he would not feel comfortable disclosing dollar figures involved with the reduction. Law school Dean Peter Shane likewise declined to release figures on compensation cuts in his school. "My hope is that we can absorb the cut that we were required to make through a reallocation of resources, rather than a cut in staffing," Shane said. "But we're still figuring out how we will deploy our resources this year." The Graduate School of Public and International Affairs was told to cut $40,000 from its faculty compensation line and $20,000 from its staff compensation budget, according to Interim Dean Martin Staniland. However, no jobs were eliminated.

A cut of $140,000 in compensation was required in the Katz Graduate School of Business, according to Interim Dean Andrew Blair. That figure includes about $100,000 from the school's faculty compensation budget and $40,000 from the budget for staff compensation. Blair said the school's administration has not determined whether personnel cuts will be required. "It depends on how you configure staff and faculty slots," he explained. "We'll try to do it in the most humane way possible. Obviously, the ideal is attrition or not hiring." The School of Education met its compensation reduction goal of about $140,000 ($100,000 for faculty, $40,000 for staff) and avoided layoffs by not hiring a faculty member it had planned to add and by using funds it earned through the summer session profit-sharing plan offered by the Office of the Provost, according to Dean Kenneth Metz.

One staff position was downgraded from full-time to part-time in the School of Nursing. Otherwise, the $90,000 that the school had to trim from its compensation budget was handled through normal attrition and staff turnover, according to Dean Ellen Beam Rudy.

School of Pharmacy Dean Randy Juhl said his school met its $70,000 in faculty and staff compensation cuts through normal attrition.

Dean Donald Mattison of the Graduate School of Public Health said no cuts were made in his school, but that the school receives only 7-10 percent of its compensation budget from the University and about 75 percent through "soft money" such as government research grants.

For the Health Sciences as a whole, Jeffrey Masnick, vice president for Budget and Financial Planning at the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center, said he was not aware of any layoffs. "I haven't heard of any layoffs in any [of the six Health Sciences] schools," Masnick said. "If there are reductions in staff or faculty it would be through attrition." Pitt's Bradford campus was instructed to cut its compensation budget by $110,000, approximately $60,000 from the staff side and $50,000 from faculty compensation, according to UPB President Richard McDowell. Cuts were made in various ways, including cutting some part-time employees and not hiring some faculty, McDowell said.

The UPB president said it was difficult to be more specific about the cuts because "when we put these budgets together, we're constantly stealing from Peter to pay Paul. Not only did we have to cut $110,000 to satisfy Pittsburgh, but we also have had to absorb $70,000 or $80,000 in new things that we're doing this year that we have not been funded for." For instance, UPB has instituted a new major in sociology that involves some start-up costs and has expanded its athletic program, which required hiring a coach.

The Greensburg campus had to cut its faculty compensation budget by $30,000 and its staff compensation budget by $35,000, said UPG Vice President for Administration Guy Rossetti. However, no layoffs were needed to meet those figures, he said.

"Rather than lay people off, we simply didn't hire all of the people we had budgeted to hire," Rossetti said.

A cut of $100,000 in staff compensation was required at the Titusville campus, according to UPT President Michael Worman. No faculty compensation cuts were ordered.

Worman said UPT reduced one 12 month position to two-semesters, eliminated two part-time positions, trimmed the hours of a full-time staffer and cut overtime hours.

The Johnstown campus was required to reduce its staff compensation budget by $95,000 and its faculty compensation budget by $70,000. "Those numbers did include fringe benefits and the Johnstown campus is complying with those reductions," UPJ President Albert Etheridge said in a prepared statement. He had no other comment.

— Bruce Steele and Mike Sajna

Filed under: Feature,Volume 29 Issue 2

Leave a Reply