How the University of Nevada, Reno’s administrative departments are affected by budget reductions
With $58.8 million being cut from the budget at the University of Nevada, Reno, nearly everyone is going to feel the knife. This round of reductions hits tenured faculty hard, but much of the non-teaching staff is feeling the effect of the budget cuts as well.
The UNR summary of budget reductions states that 25 administrators will be laid off and more are in the 138 classified positions being eliminated. Everyone will also be experiencing a 5 percent reduction in salary.
Administrators at UNR have been hit hard over the past few rounds of budget cuts. Since the state appropriation budget for UNR has been shrinking, much of the money has been cut from administrative departments.
“Since 2009, the state has reduced its appropriation to UNR by about $45 million, or 20 percent,” said David Ryfe, an associate professor the Reynolds School of Journalism. “The vast majority of that money has come from administrative units. For example, the student services office has been cut 21 percent, and the development office has been cut 23 percent.”
The cuts to the administration have been deep and are disproportional to the teaching staff. During last year’s round of budget cuts, the administration as a whole took a cut of about 20 percent, while the instructional area took a 9 percent cut.
“The president made every effort to protect the academic area, that was the goal,” said Bruce Shively, Associate Vice President for Planning, Budget and Analysis. “This time around with those areas so depleted, what the president and the provost asked was that each administrative area prepare a reduction scenario totaling 10 percent reduction and a 15 percent reduction.”
Each department being hit must reduce the department and keep functioning properly. In the previous fiscal year, the Facilities Services Department was cut around 10 percent. This year the department was asked to cut another 15 percent. During this time, they lost 26-27 percent of their staff.
“This last set of cuts in March, we ended up losing about 50 positions,” said John Walsh, Interim Associate Vice President of Facilities Services.
Those positions cut were both active employees as well as vacant positions that the department was unable to fill due to the budget reduction they were asked to make.
The cuts to administrative departments will have an effect on the campus in a number of ways. The Facilities Services department is in charge of many different aspects of the maintenance of the campus, such as plumbing, custodial duties, gardening, electricity and heating and air conditioning. With the cuts, things like the annual flowerbed planting will not be possible. The department has already started cleaning the windows of the campus less, and much of the aesthetic appeal of the campus will diminish.
“It’s going to affect the overall appearance and atmosphere on campus,” Walsh said. “It still looks very nice, just not quite as nice as it used to look.
Elimination of the assessment office and reductions in institutional analysis create fewer opportunities for the university to analyze the campus and improve.
“I think the biggest hit is going to be in just the ability of administrative offices to respond and provide a comparable level of service,” Shively said. “That’s going to be very difficult and probably not even possible. I think the quality of service provided to the campus and to the chancellor’s office and to the State Legislature is going to diminish.”
The fat has been trimmed from the university budget, and now they are starting to reach the bones of the campus. Eliminating programs is not easy, and the Planning, Budget and Analysis office has made the hard choices in order to comply with the appropriations allotted.
“The situation in the state is very difficult, and the revenue is not there to support higher education or a variety of state services,” Shively said. “We are forced into a situation of having to eliminate good programs, no one is saying the programs we have identified are poor by any means, or the faculty isn’t good.”