UT Slashing Jobs To Help Cut $14.6M From Budget

By alcalde in Blog on May 10, 2010 at 12:51 pm | No Comments

The University of Texas has cut 122 jobs and may eliminate dozens more as part of a plan to shear $14.6 million from its annual budget.

Dim economic projections and a mandate from Gov. Rick Perry to cut 5 percent of all state agency budgets has forced the University to look for places to nip.

About 90 percent of the trimming will come from administrative, not academic, units on the campus.

“Because little or no budget growth is seen in our long-term forecast, we must reduce our expenditures and strategically re-allocate our resources,” President Bill Powers said in a statement.

Some of that re-allocation has been designated for merit-based raises for faculty and staff, something Powers has said is needed to keep the University competitve with its peers and retain top faculty.

Administrative units on the campus will be hit worst because academics — particularly teaching and research — is what Powers considers the core mission of the University.

Of the administrative units, the worst-hit is in Information Technology, where 70 people have been laid off.

According to UT’s chief financial officer Kevin Hegarty, as many as 200 jobs could be eliminated by the end of next fiscal year in August 2011.

“We hope the reduction in work force can be implemented predominantly through retirements and attrition,” Hegarty said.

The various college deans may be eliminating jobs as part of their planned belt-tightening beginning this fall.

“We remain committed to pursuing our goal of becoming the leading public university in the nation,” Powers said.