{"id":86363,"date":"2020-04-21T09:25:35","date_gmt":"2020-04-21T13:25:35","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/webapp2.wright.edu\/web1\/newsroom\/?p=86363"},"modified":"2024-01-04T14:59:50","modified_gmt":"2024-01-04T19:59:50","slug":"ddn-wright-state-faculty-react-to-prospect-of-covid-related-cuts","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/webapp2.wright.edu\/web1\/newsroom\/2020\/04\/21\/ddn-wright-state-faculty-react-to-prospect-of-covid-related-cuts\/","title":{"rendered":"Dayton Daily News: Wright state faculty react to prospect of COVID-related cuts"},"content":{"rendered":"

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\"\"At one point Monday afternoon, about 140 Wright State University faculty members attended a Faculty Senate meeting via Zoom. Among the topics discussed at length, the possibility of university jobs cuts during the global pandemic.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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Wright State leaders Monday announced they were cutting administrators\u2019 salaries by 20 percent, freezing contracts and capital projects \u2014 and leaders acknowledge that may have to consider job cuts at some point.<\/span><\/div>\n<\/div>\n

None of it came as any surprise, said Laura Luehrmann, president of the university\u2019s faculty Senate.<\/p>\n

\u201cDr. (Susan) Edwards (Wright State president) has been saying for weeks that if cuts are needed, she\u2019ll be the first to take them,\u201d Luehrmann said in an interview. \u201cAnd this was one of the ways to show that. I think it was very well received.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cI don\u2019t think there was anger or surprise\u201d among WSU faculty, Luehrmann said after the Zoom meeting.<\/p>\n

With enrollment down due to the global pandemic, state government has recently informed university leaders to prepare for a \u201csignificant reduction in what is remaining of this year\u2019s state share of instruction,\u201d the university said in a campuswide email Monday.<\/p>\n

Refunds or credits due to students exceed $3 million and summer enrollment has been hit, resulting in an expected summer enrollment decrease of 17 percent, the university said.<\/p>\n

Edwards, with the university provost, vice presidents, vice provosts and deans have \u201cvoluntarily agreed to take a 20 percent reduction in salary,\u201d Wright State said.<\/p>\n

Edwards has been discussing the university\u2019s budgetary challenges with employees and community members for a while, the Senate president said.<\/p>\n

\u201cPeople are paying attention,\u201d Luehrmann said. \u201cThey\u2019re looking around. They see that this isn\u2019t a Wright State problem. Higher ed is entering into one of its most challenging periods ever, and it\u2019s not necessarily caused by the COVID-19 crisis, but this is certainly bringing it into stark relief.\u201d<\/p>\n

Edwards did not offer meeting participants on Monday a number or range of possible cuts, Luehrmann said.<\/p>\n

\u201cPresident Edwards explained that we must prepare for cuts, though we cannot know how deep,\u201d said Noeleen McIlvenna, a WSU history professor and contract administration officer for the union representing faculty members.<\/p>\n

She added, \u201cSo far the academic mission is being protected, which is what we want to hear.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cI think we are all hoping that the governor (Mike DeWine) understands that many people might need to seek more or different education and so he will protect Ohio\u2019s education at every level,\u201d McIlvenna also said.<\/p>\n

Wright State said in its email Monday that it is holding back on \u201call non-critical university-funded capital projects,\u201d new contractual agreements for goods and services have been frozen, and \u201call discretionary non-compensation spending\u201d has been eliminated.<\/p>\n

Campus facilities will be left in \u201ca low energy usage mode\u201d where possible, the university also said.<\/p>\n

\u201cTo date, Wright State has been committed to maintaining all personnel and positions. The state of Ohio has indicated they will release a plan addressing the return to work for Ohio businesses this week. We will review the plan and its impact on university operations in order to determine future staffing plans, which may include reductions in force,\u201d the university email said.<\/p>\n

View the original story at daytondailynews.com<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Excerpt At one point Monday afternoon, about 140 Wright State University faculty members attended a Faculty Senate meeting via Zoom. Among the topics discussed at length, the possibility of university jobs cuts during the global pandemic. Wright State leaders Monday … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":21,"featured_media":76745,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[730],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-86363","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-wright-state-in-the-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/webapp2.wright.edu\/web1\/newsroom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/86363","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/webapp2.wright.edu\/web1\/newsroom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/webapp2.wright.edu\/web1\/newsroom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/webapp2.wright.edu\/web1\/newsroom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/21"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/webapp2.wright.edu\/web1\/newsroom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=86363"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/webapp2.wright.edu\/web1\/newsroom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/86363\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":145489,"href":"https:\/\/webapp2.wright.edu\/web1\/newsroom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/86363\/revisions\/145489"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/webapp2.wright.edu\/web1\/newsroom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/76745"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/webapp2.wright.edu\/web1\/newsroom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=86363"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/webapp2.wright.edu\/web1\/newsroom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=86363"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/webapp2.wright.edu\/web1\/newsroom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=86363"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}