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Professors respond to impending budget, personnel cuts
Stephanie Fu
Issue date: 4/16/09 Section: News
For weeks, the state budget cuts that Gov. Bev Perdue has proposed have been stimulating discussions in many areas. The educational component of the budget cuts has been creating controversy on a few campuses in the public universities of the North Carolina system, not excluding ECU.
A recent Board of Governors meeting, in which these budget cuts were proposed and discussed, drew a great amount of attention. To the alarm of several people in attendance, ECU Chancellor Steve Ballard said that he was ready to declare financial exigency.
Financial exigency, in its simplest form, is a state of actual or impending financial crisis in which a university cannot be maintained as it currently stands. Some equate it to bankruptcy for businesses. Shortly after Ballard's announcement, Chancellor Holden Thorp, of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, said that he was not currently planning to declare financial exigency.
There are many factors of financial exigency, including the fact that many faculty and staff members face termination from the university. Currently, ECU's plan is to possibly eliminate 147 positions among the faculty and staff.
The response of many of the faculty members at ECU is negative. The ECU chapter of the American Association of University Professors has been taking action, requesting meetings with Ballard and asking to see the evidence that all measures have been taken to prevent cutting staff and faculty positions, a priority placed at the top of the list in Perdue's plans.
"The administration has not demonstrated that all possible cuts have already been made," said ECU professor and president of the ECU-AAUP Catherine Rigsby. "The lines of communication have been very, very weak. Our main concerns are that we request complete transparency in communication and for the non-personnel budget cuts to be on the table before the laying off of faculty and staff is considered."
In an ECU-AAUP press release, the organization sent a letter voicing their concerns and requesting to meet with the chancellor.
A recent Board of Governors meeting, in which these budget cuts were proposed and discussed, drew a great amount of attention. To the alarm of several people in attendance, ECU Chancellor Steve Ballard said that he was ready to declare financial exigency.
Financial exigency, in its simplest form, is a state of actual or impending financial crisis in which a university cannot be maintained as it currently stands. Some equate it to bankruptcy for businesses. Shortly after Ballard's announcement, Chancellor Holden Thorp, of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, said that he was not currently planning to declare financial exigency.
There are many factors of financial exigency, including the fact that many faculty and staff members face termination from the university. Currently, ECU's plan is to possibly eliminate 147 positions among the faculty and staff.
The response of many of the faculty members at ECU is negative. The ECU chapter of the American Association of University Professors has been taking action, requesting meetings with Ballard and asking to see the evidence that all measures have been taken to prevent cutting staff and faculty positions, a priority placed at the top of the list in Perdue's plans.
"The administration has not demonstrated that all possible cuts have already been made," said ECU professor and president of the ECU-AAUP Catherine Rigsby. "The lines of communication have been very, very weak. Our main concerns are that we request complete transparency in communication and for the non-personnel budget cuts to be on the table before the laying off of faculty and staff is considered."
In an ECU-AAUP press release, the organization sent a letter voicing their concerns and requesting to meet with the chancellor.
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