No layoffs, but Casteen warns of crisis cuts
Unlike Harvard, another investment-plagued institution, and one that stunned employees last month by announcing 275 layoffs, UVA President John Casteen announced Thursday, July 9, that despite a continuing drop in state funding, layoffs are still not part of his response to the crisis. Non-core programs, however, may hit the chopping block. "This is not a time for small steps or for delays in hopes that next month will be better," Casteen wrote in a wide-ranging University-wide email.
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12 comments
Cind, what's surprising is the way they invested the endowment and the amount of money they lost ! One would hope an institution of higher learning would apply some of that learning to themselves.
So is the German Dept. a non-core program ? I've heard entire departments will be eliminated. What happened to the UVA campus in Dubai--thought that was Casteen's plan to escape the downturn ?
No cuts for the legal team. Kurt Krueger earns $515 an hour to advise our Water Authority, wonder if UVA's lawyers get that ?
If the University and Casteen really wanted to save costs it would eliminate the twenty something staff that supports the office of the president and his wife on a full time basis.
Do the administrations of Virginia's public colleges and universities have the legal authority to furlough?
I don't know, but read with alarm the news from AZ and CA (see for example: http://www.nytimes.com/2009/07/11/education/11calif.html)
Need to make cuts? Start with the bowtie wearing cretins at the Darden School, where the heady blend of arrogance and ignorance permeates the air. Here is a so-called top-tier business school where no one, from the "distinguished faculty" right down to the so-called "leadership" of the governing foundation managed to predict the current economic crisis. They are a sham, lining their pockets with private donations and creating absolutely zero value.
Waste, sloth, stupidity. These are the shining characterisitcs of the Darden School.
No cuts for construction, either.
Casteen's email came the same day as the Blooberg article.
http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601109
UVa is contractually obligated to give hedge funds and institutions millions upons millions of dollars. These contracts were made before the crash. The state budget cuts are nothing compared to this.
The Qatar (not Dubai) campus proposal died an inauspicious death over issues of academic autonomy, I believe, and perhaps a notion that the numbers just wouldn't work.
is this really surprising anyone?
This letter lays the groundwork for the coming layoffs. Very carefully explains how painful it will be to the community. And Casteen can take all the necessary heat, since he's outta there.
The endowment has made recent tiny gains. It is still in serious trouble.
Guess Dubai wasn't the cash cow they expected, but there's always Vietnam--that's where the Physics Dept. is setting up an outpost .