ETSU’s Budget Reversion Task Force presented a “call to action” last Tuesday, Nov. 11, to a packed auditorium that consisted mostly of university faculty and staff.
The “Report of the Task Force on Budget Reduction” was a response to the economic crisis, and outlined the ways that it will affect the university in the near and intermediate futures. The meeting presented strategies compiled by the nine-member task force over a period of three weeks.
“I think we’re coming into some of the darkest and most constrained resource years we’ve had since the 1930s,” said ETSU President Paul Stanton.
To date, ETSU has faced a total budget reduction of $7,607,200, including the main campus, the James H. Quillen College of Medicine and ETSU Family Practice. Stanton anticipates future budget reversions of up to 5 percent in January 2009 and an additional 5 percent in July 2009.
If the reversions are 3 percent, the anticipated minimum, the university faces a total reversion of $13,193,200. If the reversions are 5 percent, the total could be $16,917,400.
“We are definitely dealing with some large numbers we have never had to deal with before,” said Vice President for Finance and Administration Dr. David Collins, who presented the numbers to the crowd.
The Tennessee Board of Regents, the supervising board of 19 institutions that include ETSU, has told the university to anticipate at least a 10 percent tuition increase. The increase could be as large as 15 percent.
With increased tuition revenue of at least $4.25 million, an operating cost reduction of $1 million and an unidentified reduction of $889,900, Collins said that the university anticipates being able to make it through the January budget reductions without a reduction in force. However, the future is still uncertain.
That uncertain future is the main reason behind Stanton’s decision not to retire in May 2009, and the reason why Stanton assembled the task force.
The first item addressed by the university’s “second in command,” Chief Operating Officer and Vice President for Health Affairs Dr. Wilsie Bishop, was that the university was not recommending a reduction in force at this time. The university is exploring alternatives to layoffs, she said.
The alternatives consisted of strategic plans presented by Bishop. Areas that the task force brainstormed on include cost reduction and efficiencies, cost elimination, cost consolidation and sources of new revenue. The task force then organized strategies into those categories. Short-term strategies for action could be implemented immediately or require processes be put in place immediately, Bishop said, while intermediate strategies are areas for potential budget reductions for the 2009-2010 fiscal year, and long-term strategies concern long-term implementations, such as program cuts and reductions in force.
The report, Bishop said, is a developing plan and not a final report.
“We don’t believe it has all the answers,” she said.
Short-term strategies already being implemented include cancelling trips to save travel costs, monitoring faculty and staff vacancies for their criticality, freezing indefinitely certain positions, reducing operating costs and asking programs to determine what is essential for maintaining accreditation. One example is that the annual holiday party at Shelbridge, where ETSU faculty and staff get together in a “thank you” party from the university, has been cancelled. Last year, the party cost more than $11,000.
Some janitorial staff at ETSU are paid $12,000 a year, Stanton said, so eliminating that party may have saved someone a job.
A major short-term decision made recently was to close the ETSU at Bristol facility.
Intermediate term strategies presented by Bishop include possibilities of outsourcing printing, improving the university motor pool, reviewing intensive course requirements and asking departments to establish three-year course schedules.
The departmental staffing plan in the intermediate strategy is also “more serious,” Bishop said, because it assumes greater reductions. This could include creating a Voluntary Buy-Out Plan, and the encouragement of phased retirement plans.
Long-term decisions include phasing out programs based on cost, their quality and the demand for those programs. If necessary, Bishop said, the university will present a reduction in force plan. Despite the gloomy future of the university’s funding, Bishop said that the university had no plans to cap enrollment.
“We believe that we need to continue to be a resource to the region,” she said.
Stanton ended the presentation by thanking the members of the Task Force, and added that these plans may create a new model for how things at the university are done. “Folks,” Stanton said, “we’ve just seen the tip of the iceberg. It’s going to get worse.”
For the full report by the Budget Reversion Task Force, and to make suggestions for the budget plan, visit www.etsu.edu/calltoaction/.

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