After months of uncertainty and debate swirling around employee cuts, Miami University President David Hodge announced 54 classified and unclassified employees on the Oxford campus will be eliminated next week. The cuts come from the university's plan to reduce the permanent budget by $22 million.
In his e-mail to the Oxford campus staff Wednesday evening, Hodge said 216 positions were identified for elimination, yet as a result of the hiring freeze and the early retirement incentive option, 143 of the positions identified are currently vacant.
Hodge wrote the final number of Oxford employees who will forcibly lose their jobs is 64, which includes the 10 WMUB workers who have already been notified. In addition to the Oxford cuts, the Middletown campus has identified nine positions for elimination, including one vacant position, while the Hamilton campus has no current plans to eliminate positions.
Hodge said the decision to cut staff is a difficult process, one in which the university took a strategic approach.
"The thing we emphasized over and over again was that we need to look at the budget cuts strategically," Hodge said. "We need to look at long-term goals. The central purpose of the university is educating our students. We can't say nothing will be different, but we have to look at what is best in our long-term ability to deliver a first class education."
Provost Jeffrey Herbst said the eliminated positions do not include faculty, which he said demonstrates the university's decision to limit cuts to academic affairs.
"None of the positions to be cut involve faculty," Herbst said. "They do include staff members which are an integral part of the educational program. We are taking every step possible to preserve and strengthen the value of the university."
Herbst said the vice presidents of each department have been given targets they need to reach to contribute to the budget deficit reduction.
"We are trying to meet those targets while disrupting the university as little as possible, especially while preserving our strategic priorities," Herbst said.
The employees facing lay offs will be notified between Tuesday, March 3 and Friday, March 6, according to Hodge's e-mail.
Claire Wagner, associate director of university communications, said the announcement of the 54 eliminated positions came after the university studied results from the hiring freeze and began to see early retirement option numbers.
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"Once we had some vacancies from the hiring freeze and started to get some numbers from the retirement incentive, they could more strategically look at where the cuts would have the least impact," Wagner said.
Hodge's e-mail said approximately 70 individuals opted for the early retirement option, which offered a $10,000 incentive for eligible employees to retire.
Wagner said departments have held twice-weekly meetings to see how different department cuts would affect each other. She said the positions affected will range from administrative staff to secretarial staff and grounds crew.
Hodge's e-mail additionally said the university will provide employees whose positions are eliminated with "support during the transition, including counseling, outplacement assistance and extended tuition waivers."
Wagner said the office of career services will work with affectedindividuals.
"Our career services is working to develop some interview opportunities or interview training for those who have not been in the job search market for awhile," Wagner said.
Hodge said the university has sought to be as transparent and open as possible throughout the budget cut decision process.
According to Hodge, Miami is not the only university facing difficult budget cuts.
"One of the things that makes the most sense is that our cuts are typical of colleges across the country," Hodge said
Hodge said nationally, universities are cutting budgets by approximately 5 to 10 percent.
"We're in a really difficult time, but it provides perspective," Hodge said.
In light of the situation, Hodge said he believes the Miami community will be able to find strength in one another.
"In difficult times, the qualities of communities tend to become greater," Hodge said. "In the case of Miami, bad times are going to bring out the best in us, so we will support each other and minimize the negative effects."
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