From: Funderburk, Dale C. Jr.

Sent: Friday, March 20, 2009 9:01 AM

Subject: Budget

From: DePaolo, Rosemary
Sent: Wednesday, January 14, 2009 6:33 PM
To: FAC&STAFF
Subject: Budget

Dear faculty and staff,

Welcome back to campus.  I hope you and your families and friends enjoyed the holidays and that you have returned to UNCW with renewed energy for the spring semester.

We have much to celebrate, and I will follow up this message in the next day or two with a campus letter focused on good news.  But right now, I know the troubled economy is on everyone’s mind, and I want to start by giving you the latest news affecting UNCW’s budget reductions.  As you know, last semester we experienced a 4% reversion of our annual state appropriated budget.  Given the bad news, however, about state revenue, collections, and the requirement to have a balanced budget, it seemed prudent to go beyond 4%, and so we actually made plans for at least a 6% budget reduction.  This morning news about a 6% cut became a reality; the governor’s budget office will start holding back 6% annualized beginning next month.  If it should become necessary to go beyond 6%, we can simply continue the practices we’ve already put in place (deferring hiring and computer life cycle replacements, eliminating furniture purchases, reductions in travel, non-student temporary wages, overtime, etc.).

In addition, as I stated in an e-mail just before the holidays, we were asked by Governor Easley to prepare budget scenarios that might address further possible permanent reductions of 3%, 5% or 7% for the 2009 – 2011 biennium budget.  Let me stress, though, that at this point these are only planning scenarios.  We do not know what the exact amount of the future reduction will be. Nevertheless, it seems smart to plan once again for the worst case scenario of 7% rather than 3%.

Across-the-board cuts may be viewed by some as the “fairest” approach but such reductions are finally not in the best interest of our students, our state, or the university.  They weaken all programs and inhibit our ability to respond strategically.  Our focus will be on sustaining quality, as well as positioning UNCW for the future.  We’ll continue to use the university’s seven strategic goals to drive the decision-making process.  Keeping our strategic goals at the forefront of all we do has brought us success in the past and will help us navigate through these budget reductions as well. 

The vice chancellors, along with chief of staff Max Allen will meet weekly to develop a revised reduction and reallocation plan to support the priorities and critical operations identified. The revised plan will be submitted to the Senior Management Budget Reduction Team, which includes representatives from the Faculty Senate, Staff Council, and Student Government Association, for its review and feedback.   But we need even broader involvement, and, therefore, the vice chancellors and the deans, as we work through reduction strategies, will be working with the campus community.  We need input and ideas, creativity and innovation.  I know I can count on you for that.

These are difficult times, and there is no doubt that the budget decisions we will be forced to make will be hard.  It is more necessary than ever that we communicate with each other openly and frequently.    As such, we will communicate decisions in a timely and concise manner - through supervisors, through direct communiqués with faculty, staff, and students, through forums.  In addition, members of the campus community can communicate questions, comments or concerns on an on-going basis via e-mail at VCBA@uncw.edu, the site created to solicit ideas, and I encourage you to use it.  We’ve already received some excellent suggestions, for which I thank you.

We have worked through similar difficult times in the past.  There is no doubt in my mind that we can – and will – soar beyond the challenging days that lie ahead.  UNCW has so much to be proud of, and in the end, I have no doubt we will become an even greater university than we already are, because we will, together, work through these budget challenges.

Again, thank you for your commitment to UNCW, to our students and to one another.

Sincerely,

Rosemary DePaolo