PULLMAN — Faced with a state-mandated budget cut of $6 million in fiscal year 2008-09, WSU administrators have designed a strategy that will minimize the impact on students, faculty and staff. Overall, $3 million will be taken from university reserves, with another $3 million to be derived from cuts made by academic and non-academic units. Plans for implementing these funding cuts are due to be returned to the WSU Budget Office no later than Dec. 1. (For a table outlining the budget cuts described below, click here.)
“We are striving to minimize the impact on academic-related programs and positions, in order to preserve academic quality and program offerings,” said Provost Warwick Bayly. “To that end, a greater share of the cuts will be coming from the non-academic areas.”
“Making cuts in programs is never easy. If there is any good news, it is that WSU is in better shape than many institutions, because we began this process earlier,” Bayly said. “We also have a temporary pool of reallocated funds that was generated earlier this year (through a 1.5 percent academic affairs reallocation). About $287,000 of this money will be directed to the $6 million target to defray the impact of this cut on academic units.”
First $3 million
The $3 million from university reserves are available thanks to early spending reductions and savings programs instituted in April by President Elson S. Floyd. These savings are attributed to reductions in spending, travel and hiring, with a portion being generated as a result of a six-month salary accrual policy that was imposed on vacated administrative professional positions.
Joan King, executive director of planning and budget, said, “Basically, accruals are the savings that occur when funded positions become vacant. Not all vacancies generate accruals into the central budget. For example, instructional position accruals are returned to the colleges.”
The intended purpose of the accruals, King said, is to provide for “turnover costs, leave payouts and periodic increments for most types of positions, while providing flexibility for deans to manage salary allocations for those instructional positions where staffing options are most variable.”
The six-month accrual policy was recently reduced to four-months (see https://www.ir.wsu.edu/budget/docs/accrualspolicynew.pdf).
Second $3 million
A memo from King and Bayly to all top administrators, dated Oct. 23, noted: “Since arriving at WSU, President Floyd has emphasized that we cannot afford to continue the practice of making across-the-board budget adjustments. Accordingly, we are specifically targeting our estimated central savings to protect instructional faculty, graduate students, the library and branch campuses. This action will reduce their respective share of the cut from $4.3 million under an across-the-board approach to $1.3 million. This approach will help minimize the impact of the cut on our students and faculty. At the same time, we must remember that the non-instructional activities we perform on a daily basis, which will be hardest hit by this reduction, are critical in assisting students and faculty in achieving their goals.”
In short, of the remaining $3,044,193 that must be cut, non-instructional areas will take $1,777,315 (58.4%), while academic programs will take $1,266,878 (41.6%).
More specifically, nearly all non-academic, central offices will take a 2 percent or greater budget cut. The average cut on the academic side will be 0.76 percent. The urban campuses, libraries, and college of communications have been spared from any cuts.
All budget transfers must be received by the Budget Office by April 1, so the university can remit the funds to the state before the end of the fiscal year.
More specifically, nearly all non-academic, central offices will take a 2 percent or greater budget cut. The average cut on the academic side will be 0.76 percent. The urban campuses, libraries, and college of communications have been spared from any cuts.
All budget transfers must be received by the Budget Office by April 1, so the university can remit the funds to the state before the end of the fiscal year.
For a more detailed view of the budget cuts, see the attached table.
