McPhee may gain power to lay off professors on The Murfreesboro Post

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McPhee may gain power to lay off professors

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By: MICHELLE WILLARD, Post Staff Writer

Posted: Wednesday, January 7, 2009 3:07 pm

The Tennessee Board of Regents may give university presidents more power to control budgets during the state funding shortage.

“The only agenda item for the meeting is consideration of a change to the general personnel policy that will permit the chancellor to grant permission to presidents on a case by case basis to furlough employees and take other personnel related steps to address budget shortages,” TBR spokeswoman Mary Morgan said in a press release.

Morgan added the policy change would not approve system-wide layoffs, but instead give university presidents another tool in handling the current budget crisis.

TBR will meet by telephone Wednesday, Jan. 14 to discuss and vote on the proposal.

In November, MTSU President Sidney McPhee said he expects the university will have to cut a total of $20 million to $22 million from its $345 million budget before 2010.

The cuts include an expected $10 million to $12 million decrease in state funding in the next academic year. These cuts are on top of the university losing more than $6 million in state funding over the summer with another $4 million in October.

In November McPhee held two campus-wide forums where he explained the university’s economic situation and wouldn’t rule out future layoffs of tenured staff, but did assert academics would be protected. McPhee then said a hiring freeze is not under consideration currently.

“There are going to be some layoffs. If we have to cut $10, not if, we know we have to cut $10 to $12 million. There are going to be some layoffs,” MTSU President Sidney McPhee said at the second forum.

McPhee is also looking at developing a new model for MTSU’s future with his “Positioning the University for the Future” initiative.

He has formed four strategic work groups, as well as a steering committee, to look at how to eliminate waste, consolidate resources and generate new funding sources for the future, as well as look at cutting university jobs and possibly future classes offered.

The committees will take suggestions from MTSU faculty, staff and students, as well as the community at large at www.mtsu.edu/strategic.

The Tennessee Board of Regents is the nation’s sixth largest higher education system, governing 45 post-secondary educational institutions. The TBR system includes six universities, 13 two-year colleges and 26 technology centers, providing programs in 90 of Tennessee’s 95 counties to over 180,000 students.

Michelle Willard can be contacted at 615-869-0816 or mwillard@murfreesboropost.com.

Tagged under MTSU, STATE, TBR

Member Opinions:

By: Farmall on 1/8/09
To bad we can't lay off McPhee. That would certainly correct a number of problems.