Published: January 16, 2009 07:32 am      

’Wick cuts 14 staff

Nine are full time

By Denise Richardson
Staff Writer

ONEONTA _ Hartwick College cut 14 administrative and support staff jobs Thursday, citing projected budget losses in endowment earnings and gifts, among other economic stresses.

The college eliminated nine full-time and five part-time positions effective immediately, college officials said, and hours for seven more employees will be reduced across the span of a year.

The reductions yield $361,000 in savings, officials said.

No layoffs were made in faculty ranks, but searches for full-time tenure-track faculty have been suspended for this year, said Francis Borrego, college spokesman. Faculty staffing is under review. No programs or student services have been eliminated, a media release from the college said.

Hartwick has previously implemented job actions to meet budget constraints and isn’t alone this academic year.

``The challenges that Hartwick is facing are the same being addressed by institutions across the country,’’ said Tony Pals, director of information for the National Association of Independent Colleges and Universities in Washington, D.C.

Institutions are laying off employees, cutting salaries and benefits, freezing staff levels and trimming budgets in many other ways, he said Thursday. Hartwick, a private liberal arts col- lege, enrolls 1,480 students and has 181 faculty, including 111 full-time professors, Borrego said. The 14 layoffs represent 3.3 percent of the college’s 422 employees, he said. Aramark, a separate company, provides food and building services.

The college is hiring for key positions, Borrego said, and the layoffs were based on a position’s relevance, not employee performance.

Hartwick President Margaret L. Drugovich said the positions also were reviewed in relation to the ``College’s Organizing Principle’’ to be ``the best at melding a highquality liberal arts education with experiential learning.”

Borrego said most of the staff wasn’t surprised by the cuts, but the mood on campus Thursday was somber.

``We are a small community,’’ he said. ``It’s a difficult situation.’’ Tuition, interest, gifts equal income Hartwick’s budget is built upon tuition, income from endowment and gifts, Borrego said.

With the latest cuts, the college’s operating budget for 2008-09 is $45.7 million, Borrego said. Salary increases for the past couple of years have been 3.5 percent or greater, he said, and the goal is to maintain market competitiveness for faculty and staff salaries.

The budget for 2009- 10 is under development, and pay increases haven’t been determined, Borrego said.

Expenses for a freshman this year include tuition of $31,330, with fees at $870, room at $4,500, and board at $4,185, Borrego said. Tuition and fees for next year will be announced in March. Tuition increases in the past several years were between 3 percent and 4 percent, he said.

Annual giving to the college is about $2 million, and gifts to the college are expected to drop between 10 percent to 15 percent in 2008-09. On June 30, the college endowment was $63.6 million, and on Nov. 30, it had declined by about 28 percent.

Economic crunch hurts higher education Among other institutions reporting budget woes were Syracuse University, which this month announced 48 layoffs and the elimination of 71 jobs for a savings of $8 million.

Schools in the State University of New York system await the outcome of state negotiations for a budget due April 1.

SUNY Oneonta, along with other institutions in the system, is promoting awareness about state budget negotiations and the impact of projected cuts. College President Nancy Kleniewski reported previously that the college absorbed more than $2.4 million, or 5 percent, in the operating budget during the current year by holding positions vacant and related savings.

Growing stress during the fall term Through monthly ``Conversations with the President’’ meetings at Hartwick, Drugovich has kept the campus community apprised of growing economic challenges, Borrego said.

In October, budget managers were asked to reduce spending by 1.25 percent, as the college looked to cut spending by $1.32 million in 2008- 09. Further plans are to save $361,000 this year, for $1.68 million in budget savings for 2008-09 that represents 3.5 percent of the initial budget, Borrego said.

Hartwick plans to cut spending by $2.5 million in 2009-10, the release said.

Faculty also are part of the equation.

“By suspending most 2008-09 searches for fulltime tenure-track faculty and converting these positions to one-year term positions or part-time positions, we have temporarily reduced for next year the number of fulltime tenure-track faculty,’’ Kim Noling, Hartwick faculty chairwoman, said in a prepared statement Thursday.

A review of the academic program is under way, she said, and “this program review could lead to a reduction or realignment of a small number of tenure-track and term faculty lines in 2010-11.”

Hartwick offers help to laid-off workers Hartwick is providing severance packages to laid-off employees, who found out about the job cuts Thursday from managers, Borrego said. A representative from the state Department of Labor was on campus to provide jobsearch support.

Also, the college is offering eligible employees tuition remission benefits for up to full-time, oncampus study through the spring semester of 2013, allowing them an opportunity to earn a Hartwick degree at no cost.