SU Board of Supervisors delays vote on financial emergency
29th August 2011 · 0 Comments
The Southern University Board of Supervisors on Friday decided to postpone until this week a decision on whether or not it will declare a financial emergency on the Southern University Baton Rouge campus, The Advocate reported.
The delay will give the faculty several days until a special board meeting scheduled for Wednesday to decide whether to voluntarily accept two years of furloughs of up to 10 percent of their pay in order to avoid an emergency and shorter job termination notices.
The SUBR campus is facing a $10 million budget deficit caused by statewide cuts to higher education, dropping enrollment and what some have characterized as poor financial planning.
Southern University Chancellor James Llorens told The Advocate Tuesday that he is requesting exigency for a one-year period.
In order to balance the Southern University-BR budget, Llorens said he has to reduce the pay of all Southern University employees by 10 percent for one year — with the exception of university employees who earn less than $30,000 a year.
Llorens added that even with exigency, the proposed furloughs are the “most feasible way” to trim the budget without negatively impacting students during a year of academic reorganization on campus.
The SUBR Faculty Senate voted unanimously in mid-August to oppose exigency and the “voluntary furlough and program discontinuance” agreements that faculty received.
Faculty Senate President Sudhir Trivedi told The Advocate that the estimated $1.5 million saved by enforcing faculty furloughs should not be the difference between declaring exigency in a $77 million university budget. He said more administrative cuts can be made.
“It is unfortunate that the chancellor can find no other way than to resort to this onslaught on the faculty in order to achieve a budgetary solution. We know that there are solutions which are not looked at, and we see no evidence that the university is in the state of insolvency,” Trivedi said in an e-mail.
Trivedi said Southern is violating its own rules and national standards by attempting to declare exigency without enough research and without it being a true last resort.
“The administration is basically shortchanging the students by declaring financial exigency,” Trivedi said. “The faculty doesn’t want to be the reason for the demise of this institution.”
Trivedi recently criticized what he described as pay raises and promotions given to a number of officials in the Southern University System. He told The Advocate that he is upset with some pay raises and promotions in the Southern University System office occurring at the same time.
According to The Advocate, Walter Tillman, the former executive associate to the vice president for academic and student affairs, was promoted to the newly created system office for academic initiatives position with a 35 percent raise from $66,500 to $90,000.
Also, Linda Catalon, the system director of internal audit, got more than a 10 percent pay hike from about $76,000 to $85,000.
Southern University System President Dr. Ronald Mason Jr. told The Advocate that the savings come from eliminating the vice president from academic and student affairs position and its $156,500 salary when Kassie Freeman retired.
“I don’t see that happening for a couple of reasons,” Southern University System President Dr. Ronald Mason Jr. told The Louisiana Weekly when asked if there is a possibility of pay cuts by SUBR and Southern University System administrators. “One, the System itself actually downsized last year by about 15 people and a million dollars. We’ve gone from 60 employees to 33.
“The other campuses have actually been contributing money to the Baton Rouge campus,” Mason continued. “This is a Baton Rouge problem and it has to be solved in Baton Rouge. …It’s important to for us to understand and keep the focus on the Baton Rouge campus because that’s where the issue is.”
SUBR’s state funding has dropped from $55 million in 2008-09 to $33 million this year as health care and retirement costs have grown, according to data provided by the university.
The Louisiana Weekly asked Dr. Mason what academic programs might end up on the chopping block if Southern University-Baton Rouge’s campus can’t find another way to solve its financial dilemma.
“It’s too soon to tell,” Mason said Thursday. “Right now, it’s about being able to first balance this year’s budget and then giving the chancellor the ability to close programs going into next year. They have to go into a planning process over the course of the next two or three months that’ll involve faculty and others to figure out where the core programs are that we need so that they can rebuild the institution based around those core programs. But they haven’t gotten to that yet.”
Mason told The Louisiana Weekly that a vote declaring a financial emergency “would help us balance this year’s budget.
“What would really get us back on track is the development of a plan for next year’s budget,” Mason continued. “That would talk about a new Southern that is more in line with the resources that we have to work with.”
On Wednesday, members of Louisiana’s Board of Regents questioned whether Southern University needed to declare a financial emergency for its main campus and complained that school leaders hadn’t consulted them about the plans.
Board of Regents members said Southern leaders should have talked to them before putting it on the agenda because the decision could have far-reaching implications on Louisiana higher education.
“Financial exigency is educational bankruptcy,” said Regents Chairman Bob Levy. He added, “It seems almost unbelievable that they would not be here today to discuss this matter.”
Levy said the declaration could affect Southern’s accreditation, student recruitment and perception of the school.
“At a minimum, at least they should seek our guidance,” said Regents member Scott Ballard.
The Louisiana Weekly asked Dr. Mason what he saw as the source of SUBR’s financial problems and what steps might be taken to prevent this from becoming a recurring issue. “It’s two main things,” he said. “One, higher education has just been cut a lot — $300 million over the last three years or so. Southern has taken a disproportionate share of that which has been about $18 million over the past three years. Most of that has been on the Baton Rouge campus.
“The other issue is that the Baton Rouge campus has been losing enrollment for a lot of different reasons. Part of this new plan that we are putting in place will allow us to fix the things that need to be fixed so that we can start to attract more students back to the campus.
“This has been a long time coming and we’ve just run out of things to cut now,” Mason added. “We’re starting to not be able to serve the students the way we need to. We need to fix this and move forward with a positive direction.”
For the past two years, Southern University-Baton Rouge staff have been furloughed, which amounted to a 4.6 percent reduction in pay. The faculty was not affected by those furloughs.
Southern is in its third year of reduced funding from state government. SUBR’s budgetary problems have been exacerbated by a downturn in revenue from its declining enrollment.
The Louisiana Weekly asked Dr. Mason what steps the Southern University System has taken or might take to ensure that the rift between Southern administrators and faculty members won’t adversely impact the quality of education students receive on the Baton Rouge campus.
“I have to assume that we all have the best interests of the students at heart, that’s the first thing,” Mason told The Louisiana Weekly. “The second thing is that it’s understandable that the faculty would have apprehension about this whole process because it is a difficult process for everybody but specifically the faculty.
“We’re only doing it because there really is no other option available right now,” he continued. “It’s something that can’t be avoided. We have to work for what’s best for Southern and the students and we really do hope that the faculty will work with us to make that happen.
“It’s important to understand that this is just one key part of a larger plan over the next five years for the Southern system, but this is one key part that has to happen. I think some of the faculty are looking forward to the new Southern that matches the resources we have to work with in the future.
“Don’t confuse the leadership of the Faculty Senate with the faculty as a whole.”
SUBR’s enrollment has declined from more than 10,000 to its current enrollment, which is estimated at 7. 300.
This article originally published in the August 29, 2011 print edition of The Louisiana Weekly newspaper. Additional reporting by The Louisiana Weekly editor Edmund W. Lewis.
