ECU budget task force holds open forum

A group of approximately 50 faculty, staff members and students attended an open forum sponsored by the University Budget Task Force held in Hendrix Theatre this Tuesday.

Several in attendance gave suggestions on how to go about introducing cuts to the university budget. There was debate about how salary cuts should be made and whose salary should be cut, as well as concerns voiced for those individuals possibly facing job-loss.

One suggestion from an audience member was to eliminate jobs of those making the bottom 5% of income.

According to University Spokesman, John Durham, a survey is in the works to send to faculty and staff so they can voice their opinion on where budget cuts can take place.

Many present also were interested in hearing about revenue generating options the university is considering as opposed to only managing expenses. Also discussed was the possibility of increasing class sizes and cutting the number of classes offered each semester, which would affect students' class choices and ultimately affect their ability to graduate on schedule.

The task force is co-chaired by Interim Provost and Vice Chancellor for Academic and Student Affairs Dr. Marilyn Sheerer, and Chair of the Faculty and Associate Professor in the English Department Dr. Janice Tovey.

Tovey said faculty members realize that the students and their families are also facing the difficult financial situation that is going on right now. That is why the Budget Task force is looking into alternatives for managing expenses and generating more revenue.

"Faculty don't like getting raises based on raising tuition," Tovey said.

At the meeting, some faculty members said they would prefer to take a five percent salary cut if it meant that fewer people would lose their jobs in return. Others were concerned about ECU salaries already being less than other universities within the UNC system, and the struggle ECU has been through to raise these salaries to where they currently are. Another suggestion was to remove non-salary payments instead.

Faculty members also wanted to know what was being done in terms of generating revenue rather than just looking at costs. For this purpose the Task Force has appointed a special subcommittee. They will help create awareness on how to raise funds.

One possibility discussed at the forum was to charge fees for specific courses which have unusual expenses to run the class. This is already done for certain art classes, and could be expanded to other classes.

According to Sheerer, the Task Force also plans to review current teaching loads, and discuss whether having administrators teach some courses would help the situation.

Faculty members expressed the importance of getting a piece of the pie in federal grants which will become available once the stimulus bill being considered passes through the U.S. Congress.

The health sciences department in particular strongly encouraged other disciplines to really look into doing interdisciplinary studies in order to gain a competitive edge in trying to draw in grant money.

One non-monetary option discussed was increasing class sizes. This alarmed some of in attendance, as certain classes, such as writing-intensive courses, are difficult with large class sizes. Some faculty members also discussed the need to give enough attention to students.

The Budget Task Force was formed on Feb. 5 and aims to put together a report of recommendations that will be available to aid the university's decision makers in light of up-coming budget cuts they will be facing. It includes three subcommittees, one to take in feedback received from faculty, staff and students, one to look at revenue generating alternatives and one to create a communication plan.

The Task Force aims to have their initial report done by April 15, 2009. The next open forum is scheduled for Feb. 18, 2009 at Hendrix Theatre at 5:30 p.m.

Students and faculty alike can send in their recommendations and suggestions to Dr. Janice Tovey at TOVEYJ@ecu.edu.

This writer can be contacted at news@theeastcarolinian.com.