About 590 jobs on line in MSU budget

About 600 MSU employees’ positions might be affected by the approximately $50 million in cuts the university is instituting during the next two years, MSU officials said. These cuts are an issue especially for nontenured faculty, who see job security as the No. 1 issue they face, said Richard Manderfield, spokesman for the organizing committee of the recently formed Union for Nontenure-Track Faculty and a visiting assistant professor of writing, rhetoric and American cultures. The reductions come as MSU prepares for a possible $9.1 million decrease in state funding, according to the budget guidelines approved Friday by the MSU Board of Trustees.

Personnel problems

In addition to the possible 10.1 percent tuition hike during the next two years, MSU will cut 10 percent in unit operating budgets. That’s 4 percent, or about $19.4 million, in 2009-10 and 6 percent in 2010-11, according to the guidelines. The 10 percent reduction represents about $50 million during the next two years.

Of that $50 million, about 87 percent is related to personnel and will affect about 590 positions. The majority, or 45 percent, of the personnel reductions will be accomplished by not filling open positions; 36 percent will be cut by not reappointing fixed-term faculty; and 19 percent will be done through layoffs.

Manderfield said the cuts are particularly stressful on nontenured faculty.

“Economic pressures fall disproportionately on nontenured faculty,” Manderfield said. “We find that to be unfair and that’s a concern of ours.”

Nontenured, or fixed-term, faculty hold an appointment for a set length of time. These appointments can be renewed, but with the cuts looming, Manderfield said concerns about job security are paramount.

“We really don’t have the (job) security of an average person,” he said. “There are people in the union who have been doing that for 20, 25 years. Their whole professional career lived out wondering if they were going to have a job again.”

Manderfield said there wasn’t much the union could do for this round of cuts, but its members hope to begin bargaining with the university in the fall.

Although the budget for 2010-11 won’t be set until next year, MSU President Lou Anna K. Simon said the university was planning ahead to give families more time to prepare.

“There is a lot of uncertainty for us and uncertainty for the state budget, but at some point you have to give families certainty,” Simon said.

Estimates project financial woes lasting into 2015, she said.

Cutting back

MSU officials are planning on a possible $9.1 million decrease in state appropriations for the upcoming year.

The decrease represents a 3.1 percent decrease from last year, which would leave state appropriations for the 2009-10 year at about $283.9 million, according to the guidelines.

MSU received about $293 million in-state appropriations for 2008-09.

MSU Trustee Faylene Owen said state appropriations have been falling for years and MSU had to adapt to the changing times.

“It was less than 20 years ago that we were getting 60 percent from the state of Michigan and we have to decide at this university what kind of university we want to be,” Owen said during the meeting.

Provost Kim Wilcox said future funding is still unknown.

“The governor, House and Senate’s recommendations are for this year’s budget, not for next year (2010-11),” he said. “There is growing concern there won’t be enough stimulus money to get us through two years. … We’re making our best guess at what the next year will be so students and families can start to plan further ahead than in the past.”

MSU has cut spending about $74 million during the past nine years, according to the guidelines.

In addition to a reduction in state funding, MSU is facing increasing utility prices. Costs for utilities in 2009-10 are estimated to increase by about 11 percent, or about $5.2 million.

Health care costs also have hit the university hard. Last year, MSU spent about $106 million — about $2 million a week — on health care and prescriptions for employees, said Brent Bowditch, assistant vice president of human resources, in May.

The guidelines include a $3.4 million increase to deal with raising health care costs for 2009-10. Costs have risen by about 150 percent during the last 10 years, according to a statement from MSU.

To help soften the blows, about 125 administrators, faculty and staff said they would donate their annual merit-based raises back to students, according to data from the Office of the Provost on Monday.

MSU ranks ninth in the Big Ten for average faculty salary, according to information from the Office of Planning and Budgets.

Wilcox spoke to the deans and vice presidents Tuesday.

Despite the cuts and the economic pressures the university is facing, Simon said MSU will pull through.

“We will approach it with an attitude that is an MSU can-do spirit,” she said during the meeting. “MSU has always been able to play the hand that it was dealt better than anyone else.”