A lot is happening, here in chronological order:
the day of Governor Cuomo's statement on reimagining education, The College Council Executive Committee met with President Fritz and Provost Parrish. Our agenda included:
The Budget:
And a proposal to create a task force/committee to address a potentially devastating budget position
Reimbursals: We would like to discuss how the college can leverage this expectation to provide satisfactory work environments for staff and faculty.
Keep all aspects in focus:
At the FS Town Hall, the topic of support for research was raised. Historic cuts to the support of research were reviewed, but a conversation on supporting the research infrastructure during troubling times ahead is required.
At the HEO Town Hall, the topic of training of HEO staff was raised by many staff members. It was felt the focus has been on faculty and students, and the real needs of HEO training have been overlooked.
F20 scheduling.
During the meeting we reviewed several uncertainties in the budget, such as the state allocations to CUNY, CUNY's campus-based allocations; CARES monies; hispanic serving institution monies; a pot of CARES money for K-16 at the governor's direction, etc.
Notably, no discussion on an upcoming May 9th memo to CSI Chairs regarding severe adjunct budget cuts. At some point around this time the Chancellory notified the colleges to expect a 10% reduction in tax levy resources. The proposed adjunct budget cut likely was in response to that.
College Council and Faculty Senate Executive Committee sent a letter to the President and Provost regarding the college response to the pending budgetary crisis
Email from president in response:
I have given your letter serious consideration and must respectfully decline implementation of this approach.
Email from the College Council Chair to the President
The plan proposed by the College Council and Faculty Senate gave a mechanism and a foundation to give the campus meaningful input into the campus response, which due to the scale, must be widespread. Now you have personally assumed ownership of the process, its results, and the inevitable fallout.
Carlos Serrano has provided each Dean with financial targets that show the dollar amounts that would correspond to a 35% cut within each school/division. The Deans have discretion to provide for variation within departments, but each school/division should aim to meet the specified targets for Fall 2020.
5/12: Email from President on the budget
we are exploring various budget scenarios. ... I and my administrative team will continue to communicate and consult with these as well.
Since that day, I have been involved in discussions at the IPC and the Budget Committee. I believe it accurate to say that I have not heard any specific additional detail on further budget reductions from the administration, though the IPC die hear very detailed reports on the costs of research and the costs of instruction and the budget committee was solicited for ideas on savings areas.
If you allow me some personal thoughts, let's hope now that the president isn't forced to convene a committee.
I call the following scenario the perfect storm – it is a "worst case scenario": a 10% reduction to total budget (~16M, ~11M of tax levy); a 10% drop in enrollment (~8M); no tuition increase (~ 3M); and limited federal support beyond the already implemented CARES act (at most ~ +7M). In that case, cutting the adjunct budget 35% (of ~17M) is just a baby step, and the concern shifts to retrenchment.
Following the board policy on retrenchment,
the President of each affected College shall convene an ad hoc College-wide Committee, the members of which shall be designated by the President and shall include representatives of appropriate constituent groups including the College-wide Personnel and Budget Committee,2 other teaching and non-teaching members of the instructional staff, including those currently serving as members of existing College bodies, members of the classified staff, students, the Affirmative Action Officer, and administrators of the College.
Plans for "The discontinuance of instructional staff personnel shall be implemented as a last resort only after the pursuit of other less drastic means to alleviate the impact of a financial exigency."
Discussing these "less drastic means" was the point of our request.
Let's not forget the potential gravity of the situation. The last time CUNY faced such perilous budget times was 1975 and let's review what happened in the aftermath:
FORD TO CITY: DROP DEAD
Faculty walked a picket line; faculty were furloughed and lost several weeks pay
Tuition was imposed for the first time on CUNY students
The board of Higher Eucation was replaced by the politically appointed Board of Trustees
CUNY was censured by the AAUP for how it eliminated lines, including tenured faculty
The shotgun wedding of SICC and Richmond college formed the College of Staten Island.
Will the budget crisis this time fracture the college beyond recognition?
If the worst case scenarios are realized, and the college fails to identify and protect its essential missions this is an all to real possibility.
Let's just take for example, the first shot over the bow: an "exercise" to cut 35% of the adjunct budget (to save 4.8M). To implement this and have full enrollment requires ~30% more students per section on average, and much more for many multi-section courses. It is a plan that can't possibly work in the on-campus setting and would expose dramatically that fact that personalized online education does not scale.
That's a radical change to how the college operates, and that drastic a change only gets a start – at most – to the goal line in a perfect storm.
As for other less drastic means, I have yet to hear of contingency plans by the college beyond this, but you can be sure the next areas that would be announced come from the temporary personnel budget are: College Assistants, Graduate Assistants, and research infrastructure (animal lab facility, HPCC,...)
Should this storm come to pass, this will all happen during the summer. Usually shared governance takes a bit of a rest during the summer, but this summer will certainly be different.