In an attempt to eliminate USM’s debt, which has risen to the latest figure of $8.2 million, the university implemented a hiring freeze which, to date, has removed nearly 60 positions and $2.7 million from the institution and its budget.
The administration is using the hiring freeze as a mechanism that allows for review of every position that opens up, and lets them decide if the job is central enough to the university’s mission to rehire.
The hiring freeze has been implemented in two main waves. The first was between Sept. 1, 2006 and July 1, 2007. Within that time period, a total of 30 vacant positions were not refilled.
The second section of the hiring freeze began on July 1, 2007, and is still in progress. Since then, a total of 28.9 vacant positions have not been refilled, some due to layoffs, others from retirements.
The unfilled positions in the second round of the freeze have included administrative assistants, child care employees, assistant teachers, three lecturers not under contract, custodians and four retired positions.
Dan Rabata, director of employment and compensation, said layoffs will be a last-resort option, and that in some cases, people will be asked to cut back their schedule to part-time or to work a part-year schedule, taking a month or two off, unpaid, in the summer.?
“As you can imagine, when you have a freeze going on, you don’t always have people leaving the positions you would like (lost), if you were going in and just evaluating which ones you could do without,” Rabata said. “It’s a very challenging environment, because if somebody leaves and their position is not re-filled, you have to be very creative about how you’re going to cover the work.”?
Provost Mark Lapping refers to this as picking “low-hanging fruit,” and considers the opportunistic, rather than strategic, cuts to be unfortunate.
Each time a department wants to re-fill a vacant position, the vice president or equivalent of that department must submit a detailed justification in writing to convince Lapping, HR vice-president Judy Ryan and chief financial officer Dick Campbell that the vacant position deserves special treatment.
Four criteria are considered when reviewing the positions: that it is a revenue-producing job, such as an exercise instructor who teaches paid classes and collects more than the position costs; positions needed to protect health and safety; jobs essential for legal and compliance reasons; and jobs which are critical to the mission of the university. ?
Lapping says the three-person committee is a case of putting together a small group that could act relatively quickly. Joe Wood has been included in the past two meetings, but has not gone in the past due to his demanding schedule.
The meetings deal with the vacant position applications that have come in that week, typically three or four. Sometimes, a position has to be filled or reviewed very quickly, and a meeting will occur on an impromptu basis.
The university says the hiring freeze has saved a total of $2.7 million since its initial execution in September 2006. In 2008, the university cut $2 million from its budget, and it is expected to cut between $6-7 million in 2009 — a target assigned by the University of Maine system.