Cuts, Cuts, and More Cuts

The University of Texas System will lay off 3,800 workers in the University of Texas Medical Branch at Galveston, the Houston Chronicle reports. The system’s Board of Regents unanimously approved the plan to reduce UTMB’s workforce by about a third, saying the cuts are necessary to prevent the institution, which was devastated by Hurricane Ike in September, from going under, the newspaper reports. While the layoffs were expected, their extent was a shock to some. The system plans to provide placement assistance to laid-off UTMB workers and give priority to hiring them at other UT institutions.
Beloit College will cut up to 40 jobs, or about 10 percent of its workforce, in an effort to offset a $1-million budget shortfall, The Janesville Gazette reports. A spokesman for the college told the local Wisconsin newspaper that the shortfall is a result of fewer students enrolling than expected. The college, which already has a hiring freeze in place, is approaching faculty and staff members who are planning to resign or retire about leaving early in the hope of reducing the number of layoffs, the Gazette notes. The bulk of the cuts is expected to be on the staff and administrative side, although some faculty jobs will be on the chopping block, the spokesman said.
Ashland University, in Ohio, plans to combat its $3-million budget deficit by eliminating 48 nonfaculty jobs, The Ashland Times-Gazette reports. In addition, 29 faculty members have already taken voluntary pay cuts in an attempt to reduce the deficit, which resulted from endowment losses and reduced enrollment, the newspaper reports.
Meanwhile Clemson University is taking a different tack to address its financial woes. According to a press release issued by the institution earlier this week, faculty and staff members will take a mandatory unpaid five-day leave. In addition, the university is imposing a hiring freeze and putting construction projects on hold.
Here’s a sign of just how troubled the U.S. economy is: Harvard University, the country’s wealthiest university, has announced that it, too, is considering spending and salary cuts, The Boston Globe reports. “While we can hope that markets will improve, we need to be prepared to absorb unprecedented endowment losses and plan for a period of greater financial constraint,” Drew Gilpin Faust, Harvard’s president, told the paper.