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$3.6 million shortfall at EWU

Posted: Thu Apr 18, 2019 7:04 am
by Rich K
I doubt we'll be hearing much about the glorious gateway project for a few more years...

http://www.spokesman.com/stories/2019/a ... ons-to-fi/
Facing a projected $3.6 million budget shortfall, Eastern Washington University is working to cut costs by restructuring colleges and academic departments – a process that will affect jobs.

EWU President Mary Cullinan and Uriel Iñiguez, chairman of the board of trustees, made the announcement in an April 8 email to faculty and staff, saying the university can’t afford to continue dipping into reserves.

“We must cut costs, and that work involves difficult decisions affecting all of us,” the email said. “While some services can be reduced, many of our expenses include items such as interest payments and energy costs. Cutting these would damage our ability to operate. Salaries are the lion’s share of our costs. We can’t meet our target for reduced expenses without affecting people.”

EWU spokesman Dave Meany said neither he nor school administrators could discuss details of the budget plan, as they’re figuring out the best way to restructure programs.

Re: $3.6 million shortfall at EWU

Posted: Thu Apr 18, 2019 12:14 pm
by RickRund
Wow, that will leave a big mark...

Re: $3.6 million shortfall at EWU

Posted: Fri Apr 19, 2019 2:02 pm
by Cu-Ag-Au
I thought this whole matter was brought up last summer. Seems they were looking for quick money, so the football team was going to have to do money games, and cut down home games to five, for the next several years.

Re: $3.6 million shortfall at EWU

Posted: Mon Apr 22, 2019 7:27 pm
by El Profesor
This kind of announcement (regarding sizeable budget shortfalls) will be appearing more and more frequently at second- and third-tier universities across the US over the next 5-10 years. Many universities have entirely too much middle-level management, as well as many special projects that provide value for very small subsets of students. Salaries of tenure-track (and tenured) faculty are all fixed costs, making for some really challenging budget-balancing for universities' VPs of Finance.

I wish that I could recall tenure-track salaries as a percentage of a typical departmental budget. My vague recollection is that it's typically something like 80%; it might be even higher. And, unfortunately, some tenured faculty are total deadweight but are yet nearly impossible to remove ... due to archaic rules regarding tenure.