The new budget (2011) for the college of liberal arts has made its way through the grapevine and it looks like the liberal arts department will be eliminating very very few positions. Great leadership from the top down. Whoop!

It's not the FY11 budget every one is worried about. It's the FY12/FY13 budgets when the 10% kicks in.

The A&M fiscal year ends at a goofy time. Thus, the cuts Im talking about (Sept 1, 2011) are for the period in question (10% reduction). Great news if your in the dept.

SHould be getting an email from Loftin this afternoon with links to budget plans. These are worst-case scenarios. We probably won't know our actual number for FY12/13 until next summer.

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Great news if your in the dept.

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How ironic that the College of Liberal Arts is home to the English Department.

^^^^^^^^^^^^^

maybe that is the perfect example of why a lib arts degree is such a waste

Sorry, I was in a hurry. The president should be releasing an email with all the budget info in it this afternoon. Overall, Lib Arts is reducing ~$4.7 million in costs.

This email?

July 20, 2010

To: Students, Faculty and Staff

Howdy from your President!

In recent months, I have visited with many of you about our budget situation and what the future holds. Dr. Karan Watson, our interim provost and executive vice president for academic affairs, and other administrators have done the same. We continue to seek and appreciate your insights, opinions and ideas.

Despite the budget reductions that Texas A&M and other state universities and agencies have already taken for the current
FY2010-2011 biennium, experts predict that the state could face a budget shortfall of anywhere from $11 billion to $18 billion for the upcoming FY2012-2013 biennium when the 82nd Legislature convenes in January 2011.

This is due to several factors, including lower tax revenues, uncertain federal funds, increasing enrollments at all levels of public education and other demands on the state budget. The Legislature must address these issues when it convenes since the Texas Constitution requires the State to balance its budget.

In anticipation of this revenue shortfall, the Legislative Budget Board in late May asked Texas A&M and other state universities and agencies to develop a plan for a second budget reduction of 10 percent, in 5 percent increments, for the upcoming FY2012-2013 biennium which begins September 1, 2011.

Last week, our deans and vice presidents turned in their respective plans for addressing a $60 million budget reallocation as part of this process. A working group made up of faculty, staff, students and administrators is meeting today to review these plans and develop a set of recommendations for my consideration.

The $60 million figure comes from the worst-case scenario of a $39 million reduction in state appropriations ($13 million for the first 5 percent reduction, $13 million for the second 5 percent reduction, and $13 million for base budget funds provided through the federal stimulus package) to be implemented at the beginning of FY2012. The remaining $21 million would be reallocated to invest in high-priority needs across the campus and in accordance with the college and division strategic plans
(http://provost.tamu.edu/strategic-planning-2010) that are currently being reviewed and refined. It is very likely that we will not know our state appropriation amounts for the
FY2012-2013 biennium until early next summer; therefore, we must proceed with the total $60 million budget reallocation.

As I have said before, we will not be able to withstand a $60 million reallocation without impacting people and programs. The preliminary plans submitted by the colleges and divisions impact approximately 275 vacant positions and 210 filled positions. While the FY2012 budget doesn't go into effect until September 1, 2011, some units may be asked to take actions almost immediately due to the rules governing personnel appointments and other circumstances.

Hard decisions lie before us, and Dr. Watson and I will continue to meet with key groups of faculty, staff and students regarding the reallocation, our investments in the future of Texas A&M, and anticipated consequences of the budget reductions. I will conclude this process by hosting a series of campus-wide Town Hall meetings in September. You can find our budget-related information and college and division plans here: http://finance.tamu.edu/budget/.

Thank you for all that you have done to ensure that the discussion on the budget to date has been robust, civil and insightful. I appreciate your perseverance and hard work as we maneuver through uncertain times and work together to best position Texas A&M for the future.

Until next week, Gig 'em Aggies. In the meantime, you can always reach me at president@tamu.edu. For specific questions about the budget, email budget@tamu.edu.

Dr. R. Bowen Loftin '71
President

That is the college wide email. The individual departments are also circulating emails with the specific #'s and plans on how those numbers will be achieved.

http://www.theeagle.com/am/A-M-plans-for-reductions-in-force

from the Eagle

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The Mays Business School, charged with planning a $3.4 million reduction in fiscal year 2012, has slated a loss of 26.5 full-time equivalent faculty positions, including nearly 23 currently filled, the documents show. That would correspond to a loss of roughly 200 course sections, officials wrote.

Through the elimination of nearly 12 FTE non-tenure track faculty and 12.5 staff positions, along with faculty retirements, departures and reassignments, the College of Engineering has planned to make a $2.8 million dent in its $5.5 million reduction goal.

In the College of Liberal Arts, which has the most students, the equivalent of 16 faculty positions would be eliminated to save nearly $1.37 million. The college, which has been charged with $4.7 million in reductions, has also slated 10 vacant faculty positions to be eliminated.

The College of Science has planned to cut 21 lecturers, roughly a third of the college’s force, along with about 60 graduate assistant positions. The pair of moves would save about $2.2 million of the college’s nearly $5 million reduction amount, but with a severe impact on teaching and research, officials say.[\quote}



[This message has been edited by BQwolf05 (edited 7/20/2010 3:52p).]

Those numbers are misleading, but do indicate the dire straits of the fiscal year 2012. Most of the cuts are from already vacant positions. For instance, of the 1.38 million reduction in faculty in the liberal arts department, only 179k is coming from existing positions. The remaining 1.190 million is from either voluntary retirements or attrition.

Yes, many of the reductions are from retirements and from those going elsewhere, but that leaves fewer faculty to teach courses. Looks like 27 positions. Science looks like they are gutting their lecturer positions. As Dean Newton said, they can't get rid of tenured faculty.

Actually, budgetary issues are one of the few instances were tenure track faculty and tenured profs can be cut. The reason they didnt do that was to help preserve the rankings etc.

The information talks about the faculty positions, but as an a staff member at A&M my concern does not lie with what faculty positions (no offense to faculty) that will be cut. Yes they are cutting faculty members but there will be others in the departments that will be cut.

I agree with you nichols as well, the numbers are misleading, where is LA going to make up the difference between what they plan on cutting and needing to cut.

Lib Arts is a COLLEGE not a DEPARTMENT!!

LA is pushing everyone to a 9 month work year and changing the funding if graduate stipends etc. Those changes free ~2.5 million.

What I a, curious to see/know is how exactly these cuts are going to directly affect students. i know my college/department will be eliminating lecturer positions. requiring tenured professors to teach more courses at varied levels (many grad faculty will pick up undergrad courses), etc. These changes are resulting in fewer course offerings across the board, larger class size on those offered,virtually no core courses in the summer.... With class size limited by available classroom space and increasing admissions numbers, how can the university continue to support the current student population, much less continue to grow? I know that any students in certain programs in our department are already having to delay graduation due to reductions in core course offerings. These students are being told that reductions are in direct response to budgetary issues, yet Loftin et al. have stated over and over that they expect the impact on students to be minimal. I just dont see how that's feasible.

Any sections eliminated will be picked by by various tenure track faculty. The summer school issue with core course offerings is NOT a budgetary response. It is is a departmental decision made by department heads (all positions ate being pushed to 9 month schedules). Class size will incerase, but not dramatically as research profs will begin to teach. The main area effected will be the boutique courses that were supported by non tenure track faculty. The lecturers tht survived the purge are mainly those with multiple large sections of core classes.

nichols... that may be how Liberal Arts is explaining their moves, but is not the explanation given in my college. Students are being told the summer course cuts are a direct response to budgetary concerns. Now, you are correct in that it is a departmental decision, however it's a departmental decision made in response to the current budget crisis.

These cuts are very alarming and solidify a trend that has been evolving for some time.

There continue to be news reports and local chatter about how the local economy is "thriving". The limited growth that we are having has a chance to backfire. While we are having new restaurants and shopping centers come in, the existing shopping centers have vacancies, and the existing restaurants are slowing.

Anyone who engages in the chatter about our thriving local economy is clearly not in business. The business owners I know are struggling and have been for some time. Sales are way down, and that's a big reason for the City's fiscal shortfall.

People need to stop living in a dream world and realize that things aren't blissful. As a community, we need to become more aggressive to attract high paying industry and stop sitting on our butts thinking that we've got it all under control.

australopithecus,

That would start by getting a more business friendly City council to change ordinances in FAVOR of business.

Try top get mulitple curb cuts for new construction in college station. Forget it for an existing structure.

There is a reason there are more large businesses in Bryan.

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People need to stop living in a dream world and realize that things aren't blissful. As a community, we need to become more aggressive to attract high paying industry and stop sitting on our butts thinking that we've got it all under control.

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The vaccine company is on its way to Bryan, so that will help. But as always, I caution, be careful what you wish for. Maybe BCS is at its perfect size already. Bigger is not always better. When you get bigger, crime also goes up. There's nothing wrong with being a small metro area-- really do we want to be a medium size metro area? We have had phenomenal growth in health care industry in both towns and I think that is a great way to go. High paying jobs which promote other services (restaurants, hotels, retail). BCS is really good at the hospitality thing in part because it is still BCS and not some mid-size metro like Corpus or McAllen.

Thank you Allonym!

I could not agree more with you. The last election was a good first step, but we need more help to start to make the changes we need.

Sadly, it's late in the game and it's going to take a long time to recover and lick our wounds, if we still can.

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That would start by getting a more business friendly City council to change ordinances in FAVOR of business.

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[hijack]
Just wait until the traffic impact fees go through. You can kiss CS growth goodbye unless you have deep pockets.
[/hijack]

Yes! Those traffic impact fees are lunacy. The City is behaving like we're Silicon Valley or something. We need to be begging for businesses and population with incentives. Nobody's going to build a 5,000 sq. ft. business in town if they have to pay $500k to the city to get it done. It's barely bankable as it is.

STUPID

Have the people being cut already received notice?

The faculty being cut have received notice. of the staff positions being cut, some colleges have provided advanced warning, while others have not. With that said, each colleges individualized budget reduction proposal gives a very clear indication of what staff will be terminated.

mnichols -- Explain this further please: 'LA is pushing everyone to a 9 month work year and changing the funding if graduate stipends etc. Those changes free ~2.5 million.'

Ex Department heads are paid on a 10.5 month schedule vs the typical 9 month schedule of most profs. It helps provide incentive for faculty to fill the ever less glorious and politically charged position. In our college, we recognized that over the years, that policy resulted in paying a department head in 1980 (for example), an extra 1.5 months salary per annum for 30 years. Thus, by pushing every faculty member to a 9 month salary schedule, the college was able to free 800k or ~10 avg tenure level faculty. In terms of the graduate assistantships, they were transfered over to fee money (fee revenue is not effected by the state 12/13 reductions). Some colleges decided against moving everyone to 9 months (science & business) and thus you will see that they have reduced more faculty positions as a result.

[This message has been edited by nnichols (edited 7/21/2010 4:24p).]

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The faculty being cut have received notice. of the staff positions being cut, some colleges have provided advanced warning, while others have not. With that said, each colleges individualized budget reduction proposal gives a very clear indication of what staff will be terminated.

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This is not true in my college (Veterinary Medicine and Biomedical Science). While our dean's e-mail gave the number of faculty and staff eliminations and the number of faculty appointment reductions, the people that may be affected have not been notified at this time but will know before Sept 1. Faculty will have 1 year and staff will have 60 days. There are a lot of nervous folks in my college right now because no one knows if they are safe or not.