As a result of additional budget cuts, 33 more Miami University employees will be out of a job.
The university notified more than 33 employees last week that they could be laid off, due to a process called bumping.
According to Provost Jeffrey Herbst, the term bumping does not refer to how many people were laid off, but rather who was laid off.
"Bumping is in regards to classified staff only, some of whom may have bumping rights based on seniority," Herbst said. "In some cases when a position is eliminated, the employee in that position may bump someone else out of their position based on their seniority, so bumping refers to who precisely loses their job, not how many positions are cut."
According to David Creamer, vice president for finance and business services, the layoffs are widespread across a number of university divisions.
"There are 33 positions that will be displaced in this round of notifications, and the number of employees who were contacted is a little larger than that because we have something that will affect our classified or hourly staff called bumping that required some additional notification," Creamer said. "That number included everybody so there were some impacts within each division, including academic affairs, finance and business services and information technology."
The layoff notifications took place between Sept. 28, and Sept. 30, except for some extenuating circumstances.
"Depending on the area, the notifications occurred somewhere between Monday (Sept. 28) and Wednesday (Sept. 30) for the most part," Creamer said.
"Occasionally there was an individual who was absent or their work schedule didn't cause them to be here so they got their notification later than that."
According to Creamer, the effective date of termination will depend on how the employees are classified, and how long they have been working for Miami.
"The effective date will be at the earliest (in) 60 days," Creamer said. "(For) employees who are unclassified staff and who have been with the university for at least five years, those won't take affect for five months."
Enjoy what you're reading?
Signup for our newsletter
According to Creamer, the layoffs were necessary because of budget cuts.
"As we've communicated through letters to the community from the president and others, we had an additional amount of budget reductions totaling $5 million that were being implemented by each of the divisions based on their share," Creamer said. "In some instances in order to accomplish (the budget cuts) it required the layoff or elimination of a position."
Herbst said the university has tried to minimize the effects of the layoffs.
"We try to use position elimination only when it is absolutely required," Herbst said. "We tried to protect core areas, especially our teaching program, to minimize the effect of the cuts as much as possible."
According to Creamer, the layoffs should not affect the productivity of the university or affect the students in any way.
"Each year the university is trying to manage this in such a way that the implications for our students and others are kept to a minimum," Creamer said. "Part of the notification period is in accordance with our policies but it is also intended to allow some time to adjust to these changes. The goal is obviously to try to implement the things we need to do in this window of time before the effective date of the layoff occurs and to hopefully minimize the effects of these layoffs."
Read More
How one professor and her classes are preserving Oxford’s Black history
By Sean Scott | March 20, 2024Jazma Sutton, an assistant professor of history, teaches The Black Midwest (HST 350Q) and Black Women in America (HST 450D) classes. In both courses, she has students working with the Smith Library of Regional History and Miami’s archives to document and preserve Black history in Oxford.
Miami faculty members recount Freedom Summer in new documentary
By Luke Macy | February 25, 2022After seven years of work, “Training for Freedom,” a documentary highlighting Oxford’s involvement in the Freedom Summer of 1964, premiered on PBS Western Reserve on Valentine’s Day.
“Documenting the COVID-19 Pandemic”: History in the making
By Alice Momany | August 29, 2021In March 2020, Miami University’s archives launched “Documenting the COVID-19 Pandemic,” a collection focused on life during the COVID-19 pandemic.