Ohio U. to pause job cuts while dealing with virus
Budget reductions totaling $26M over 3 years now on hold.
Ohio University is pausing planned personnel-related budget cuts as it navigates the coronavirus pandemic.
A letter from OU President Duane Nellis and other administrators to faculty and staff and leadership on Wednesday said he has asked university leadership to pause personnel cuts.
“Our current focus must be on the safety and well-being of our campus communities as we continue to ensure the education of our students and service to our region,” Nellis wrote.
Like most colleges throughout the state, OU has moved all coursework online for the rest of the semester and instructed students to move out of campus residence halls due to the coronavirus and measures put in place to stop its spread.
Less than a month ago, Nellis wrote to the university commu
nity that an analysis recommended budget reductions of about $26 million over the next three years within its academic colleges.
The university has been working to rebalance its budget amid numerous financial challenges, citing decreasing enrollment and a previous budget approach that banked on an increase in students.
In January, the university said that fall 2019 enrollment was down 5.2% and projected enrollment for the spring semester was down 6.2% compared with the 20182019 academic year.
Administrators also have pointed to growing pressure around college affordability and student debt.
Last year, the board of trustees approved $65 million in spending from university reserves through fiscal year 2023.
In Wednesday’s memo,
Nellis cautioned that “difficult decisions remain,” and university leaders will reassess as they get more clarity.
“We will re-evaluate our budget planning assumptions and our institutional priorities as we respond to these unprecedented and unpredictable times at OHIO and more broadly in higher education,” he wrote.
Additionally, the deadline for previously announced buyout offers for more than 600 eligible employees has been extended two weeks, to April 4, OU spokeswoman Carly Leatherwood said.
The OU chapter of the American Association of University Professors (AAUP) applauded the decision to pause the cuts, saying, “This move to protect jobs in uncertain times is a perfect demonstration of what true Bobcat solidarity — with our employees, our students, and our region — looks like.”
Budget talks have drawn criticism from OU professors who worry about damage to the university’s academic mission. The OU AAUP had been asking university administrators to halt the “non-renewals” of instructional, non-tenure track faculty. The deadline to inform those professors if their contracts will not be renewed is typically April 15.
“We appreciate the security that this statement provides to Ohio University employees, especially the 315 instructional faculty members whose jobs have been on the chopping block,” the OU AAUP said.
Still, the organization said it remains concerned about how the university will handle its challenges. “Even after we have made it through this crisis together, such layoffs would still compromise OHIO’s core mission of education and social mobility,” they wrote. “Instructional faculty are critical: they teach hundreds of classes and tens of thousands of students every semester, all for the lowest pay.”