<p>This was released today. Does not tell us any specifics.</p>
<p>Dear Members of the Florida State University Community:</p>
<p>What follows is a brief summary of Florida State University's 3-Year Budget
Reduction Plan, which will be submitted to the university's Board of Trustees
for its consideration on Wednesday, June 17. The university's Budget Crisis
Committee completed its final review of the plan yesterday, June 11. (We are
distributing this letter electronically as well as posting it to the fsu.edu and
campus.fsu.edu web sites.)</p>
<p>In brief, the goal of the plan is to put the university in a position to operate
and accomplish its mission at its highest level, while reducing the budget $56.6
million over the next 36 months. Federal stimulus funds will help us in the
first two fiscal years of the plan, but by Year Three, we must be prepared to
operate the university with $56.6 million less.</p>
<p>We are all aware of the economic downturn nationwide and statewide that has led
to this severe underfunding of higher education. Some of us will be directly
affected by this downturn. Some of us are indirectly affected. But every
member of our University Family -- students, faculty, staff and administrators -
will feel the impact.</p>
<p>Every individual involved in the budget process faced very difficult decisions
with limited choices while trying to protect the mission of our university and
as many of our students, staff and faculty as possible.</p>
<p>Because of the importance of the activities of the Budget Crisis Committee,
every effort has been made to maintain a transparent process and all documents
have been posted on a web site (<a href="http://campus.fsu.edu/budget%5B/url%5D">http://campus.fsu.edu/budget</a> ) open to everyone
on campus. The Committee met 13 times between December 8, 2008 and June 11,
2009. Suggestions for cost savings were solicited from the campus community.<br>
The Budget Crisis Committee received approximately 100 suggestions, which it
carefully evaluated and implemented as appropriate. </p>
<p>President Wetherell and other administrators regularly presented budget
information and committee updates to the Faculty Senate. Updates have been
distributed to everyone on campus as new information has become available.</p>
<p>In addition, the President hosted a Town Hall meeting during which he presented
the university's current budget as well as a "worst case scenario" that was an
option with cuts then being considered by the Legislature.</p>
<p>Additional cost saving efforts, such as shutting down cooling and heating
systems over the weekends have been made. Again, all of these measures were to
avoid or reduce the numbers of individuals affected by the budget reductions.</p>
<p>Despite these and other efforts, the university must reduce its expenditures by
$56.6M as part of $82.8M in mandated budget reductions since 2007. </p>
<p>While the university did not have to confront the "worse case scenario," its
Budget Crisis Committee faced a considerable challenge with a total reduction of
$56.6 million that is based on the January 2009 ($12.3M) reduction as well as
the reduction ($44.3M) enacted by the legislature during the 2009 session. The
committee's proposed plan, which is summarized below, addresses our budget
reductions over a three-year period and will keep the university academically
and operationally strong. </p>
<p>The proposed plan reduces spending by $35.7M during the 2009-10 Fiscal Year.<br>
The plan anticipates that the other $20.9 million needed will be met by using
new tuition revenues and any increase in state support in the out years rather
than additional budget cuts. </p>
<p>Federal stimulus and "fund balance non-recurring dollars" will be used to
balance the budget until 2011-12. It is hoped that the reductions will be
sufficient for some time to come, but this depends on our state's fiscal
conditions. It is very important that we continue our efforts to maintain
current enrollment levels to protect tuition collections.</p>
<p>It is not possible to reduce spending by $35.7M without a reduction in personnel
because salaries account for the majority of the budget. Currently there are
more than 6,000 employees, of which about 4,500 are paid by state funds. Every
effort was made to reduce the number of employees through attrition, and that is
the reason positions have been frozen since October of last year. </p>
<p>This strategy reduced positions by more than 240, but because many of these
positions were at the lower end of the pay scale, the hiring freeze was
insufficient to produce the required reductions. Despite these efforts, it is
necessary to recommend to our Trustees that additional faculty and staff
positions be eliminated, perhaps as many as 200, including approximately 25
tenured faculty. Reducing employment by 440 positions is a bitter pill for
those directly affected, for the university and for the community because
nothing like this has been necessary at our university in many years.</p>
<p>Every effort will be made to give affected individuals maximum notice. All
tenured faculty will receive a year's notice, while all other faculty and staff
will receive the maximum possible notice, which will vary with the
classification of their positions. </p>
<p>The university will do everything possible to assist affected individuals in
finding other positions either on or off campus. Human Resources has
established the Office of Budget Crisis Support Services to meet individually
with those affected. Individuals who need assistance, should call or email
Francesca Ciaccio-Freeman, phone: (850) 644-7701, <a href="mailto:fciaccio@admin.fsu.edu">fciaccio@admin.fsu.edu</a>.</p>
<p>In anticipation of questions, the following information is provided:</p>
<ul>
<li><p>Why weren't the budget reductions the same for every unit? That not all
units were reduced in the same manner is consistent with the desire of our
Trustees who did not want across-the-board reductions. In addition, some units
could no longer function given a 10% or greater reduction while the quality of
others would fall below an acceptable level.</p></li>
<li><p>What happened to the 21 programs listed at the April 21, 2009 Town Hall
meeting for possible suspension or reduction? These were identified as
possible suspensions or reductions under one of the budget proposals being
considered. Fortunately, the reductions, although large, did not reach this
level; thus the majority of these programs will not be suspended.</p></li>
<li><p>How were programs to be suspended or merged identified? Both prior to and
following the Town Hall meeting, various aspects of each department were
examined, e.g., student credit hours generated, degrees awarded, contract and
grant expenditures, and tuition collected. These were compared on a per faculty
member basis as well as overall. It became clear that there is no precise
formula that would satisfy all parties, and the formation of the proposed plan
came down to assessing each unit in consultation with the deans. </p></li>
<li><p>Why are the numbers of programs and affected faculty and staff constantly
changing? This is a fluid situation because attrition, retirement and mergers
and consolidation of programs have continued throughout this process. </p></li>
</ul>
<p>Thank you,</p>
<p>The Budget Crisis Committee</p>