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NEWS
| JAN. 28
Administration
7-percent budget cut requires hiring
freeze
Chancellor Mark Yudof asks system
components to cut budget spending.
By Josie
Garcia
Contribution to The Shorthorn
The finance and administration department
instituted a hiring freeze last week, responding to UT System request
to cut budget expenditures, university officials say.
The department cannot hire until the freeze is lifted, and some
have said the policy might spread to the entire university within
the next few days. This decision comes in the wake of a $9.9 billion
state budget deficit that threatens to cut state services from education
to health care, lawmakers said.
Chancellor Mark Yudof requested Friday that all 15 system components
cut their budgets to accommodate a 7-percent reduction in state
appropriations. He stated in a system release that each university
will be affected differently, but all are expected to cooperate
with the cuts.
“This is a collective effort to achieve these savings, not
an individual one,” he stated.
A 7-percent reduction in state appropriations of $1.49 billion to
the system this year would amount to an estimated $104.3 million,
according to system figures. The university will receive about $6
million less in state funds, Provost George Wright said.
Gov. Rick Perry sent letters Thursday to state agencies instructing
them to cut their General Revenue spending by at least 7 percent
through the fiscal year, which ends in August. Perry has already
cut the governor’s office budget by 14 percent.
John Hall, assistant vice president for finance operations, said
administrators expected only a 3- to 4-percent budget cut.
“We were anticipating some budget reduction this year but believed
it would not be 7 percent,” he said. “We’ll stress
the importance of maintaining the same level of service for our
students.”
Hall said the budget constraints will most likely prompt a university-wide
hiring freeze, expanding the policy to all areas of UTA. He said
he expects an announcement any day now.
The provost announced a modified hiring freeze for departments during
a meeting Monday afternoon. Exceptions, including proposed staff
and faculty hires, must be approved by him.
“This is not a blanket freeze,” Dr. Wright said. “We’re
fairly certain we can live manage **which word is it? Ask Piper**
under these conditions until the economic situation improves.”
Dana Dunn, vice president for academic affairs, said this modified
hiring freeze differs from the action Dan Williams, senior vice
president for finance and administration, announced last week. She
stressed that all open faculty positions will be “strategically
reviewed with the deans to make decisions on which positions will
go forward.”
Dr. Williams said the last time there were any major budgets cuts
was in 1985, predicting it could be 2005 before the state sees any
economic improvement. Until then, he said, “we will do what
we have to do.”
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George Wright, UTA’s provost,
says the university will get about $6 million less in
state funds.
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