Southern releases reorganization proposal
The faculty-to-student ratio will increase from one faculty member for every 20 students to one for every 23 students, Llorens said, but there will be little impact on course offerings.
Southern University’s proposed reorganization plan would cause nearly 90 layoffs, if approved Friday by the Southern Board of Supervisors.
Southern released its “retrenchment and reorganization plan” late Wednesday. It outlines layoffs, consolidations of the academic colleges and changes in the university’s administrative structure.
No academic programs are slated for termination yet, said Southern Chancellor James Llorens, adding that no such cuts would be proposed before February.
The reorganization is a direct result of the university’s funding problems and the decision to declare a financial emergency, called exigency, in October. Exigency, which is generally considered a serious blemish to a university, allows Southern to more easily lay off tenured faculty and ax degree programs.
“This gives us a more efficient operation, but also one that is prepared for growth,” Llorens said Wednesday.
The plan would eliminate about 35 faculty members — more than 10 percent of the total faculty — and staff cuts would come in human resources, information technology, campus maintenance and then be spread around the rest of the university, Llorens said. The academic college consolidations also will mean fewer deans and academic department heads, he said.
Areas like financial aid, university admissions and the campus police are being protected, Llorens said.
Termination notices will go out to faculty and staff in February, Llorens said, but no one will lose their jobs until May and June. He also is not yet identifying which academic departments will lose the most faculty.
“We have a general idea,” Llorens said. “But that’s fluid.”
However, one email from Southern interim Executive Vice President and Provost Janet Rami that was leaked to faculty indicated that as many as three School of Architecture faculty members could be cut.
The faculty-to-student ratio will increase from one faculty member for every 20 students to one for every 23 students, Llorens said, but there will be little impact on course offerings.
What is also “still being tweaked” is the exact structure of the consolidation of academic colleges, Llorens said. But the end result is to consolidate nine academic colleges and schools into five and to reduce the number of campus deans from 14 to five.
The most recent draft plan would have the five colleges as the College of Education, Liberal Arts and Social Sciences; College of Engineering, Architecture and Technology; College of Business; College of Natural Sciences and Agriculture; and College of Nursing and Allied Health.
The immediate goal is to create about $8 million in savings for the next school year, according to the plan, by cutting nearly $6.8 million in salaries and fringe benefits, $649,000 in operating services, $100,000 in travel, more than $75,000 in supplies, and more.
The university has struggled with state budget cuts and enrollment losses in recent years in the lead up to exigency.
Llorens also emphasized that the reorganization should eliminate the need for faculty and staff furloughs for the next school year. Employees are required to take 10 percent of their job time off without pay for the current fiscal year that ends June 30.
After another school year of anticipated enrollment losses in 2012-2013, Southern is projecting to start growing student enrollment levels. Continuing tuition increases also should offset state budget cuts, according to the reorganization plan.
Southern Faculty Senate President Sudhir Trivedi said he is “seriously frustrated” that Llorens and the Southern University System are not being more forthcoming about the plan and its details.
Trivedi did say he is glad that the plan does not call for terminating 50 or more faculty members as previously feared.
“But we are operating under the cover of darkness,” Trivedi said. “I am appalled by this lack of clarity and transparency.”
Llorens argued that the university has accepted constructive input from more than 100 faculty members, not counting additional staff and alumni. Trivedi has been involved in the budget meetings.
As for faculty layoffs, Llorens said the decisions will be based on set criteria that include each academic discipline, research success, teacher evaluations and more.
Llorens also said the reorganization eventually means strengthening and adding new academic programs.
The programs in the School of Nursing, College of Engineering and the College of Business are all identified as “premier” programs that must be protected. Programs that need to be “enhanced” include computer science, rehabilitation counseling, urban forestry, criminal justice and education, according to the plan.
As for the administration, the university will no longer have a “provost” as the second-in-charge and academic chief. Instead, Llorens’ No. 2 on campus will be the new “executive vice chancellor for academic and student affairs” position at a salary less than that of a provost, he said.