UTB layoffs on horizon

Sometime this spring hundreds of employees will be notified of their termination in connection to the UTB-TSC split, a university official confirmed this week.

The terminations are a part of what officials have dubbed the "right-sizing" process for "UTB 2.0" post-partnership. Provost Alan Artibise said the university would likely face a deep budget cut and cuts in faculty and staff because of the split, according to academic senate meeting minutes from late last year.

On Monday, Artibise said that under University of Texas System rules, faculty and staff notified of termination will have at least one year until their employment ends. This affects those who have at least three years at the University of Texas at Brownsville and Texas Southmost College.

"This is a major undertaking and will send shock waves through the community. This is a $62 million budget cut," Artibise said of the university, according to minutes from the November meeting.

In comments this week, the provost said he could not cite any exact figures regarding the scale of the terminations, but said notices would go out in late spring, which could mean April, May or even June.

"We’re still working on it," he said. "Today, I cannot quote a number about how many people will be effected. I just don’t know. Generalized numbers are not very helpful anyway. ... I can’t say, ‘We’re taking every department and cutting it by 51 percent.’ That’s not going to happen."

At the start of the UTB-TSC split, university administrators acknowledged layoffs would occur. Yet it seems that now the sheer scale of the process has become slightly clearer as spring quickly approaches.

"It’s going to be big," Artibise said. "It will affect several hundred people. I don’t know if 600 hundred is the right number, but it’s going to affect a lot of people."

Artibise and UTB transition official Michael Putegnat dropped the bombshell at the November academic senate meeting where they took questions from faculty.

On Monday, Putegnat said he was no longer allowed to comment publicly about the transition operations, directing questions to UT System spokesman Anthony de Bruyn.

Artibise said the "right-sizing" process would effect departments differently, as some are more directly related to how many students are on campus. Faculty will be involved in determining how positions in their department are cut, he said, and administrative units will also be included in the cuts.

According to the academic senate meeting minutes, Artibise said a committee would be instructed to determine how faculty would be retained.

"For example, if there are 23 in a department, and UTB determined only 15 are needed, this committee will recommend who those 15 will be," Artibise said.

Counseling and other help will be offered to those whose positions are cut, as was the case last June will UTB-TSC cut 34 jobs after a $16 million budget cut related to Texas’ budget crisis.

"The Provost stated that last time UTB eliminated 30-40 people/positions," the academic senate minutes read. "This time (March/April 2012 notices) ‘is on the scale of 10 to 20 times’ with hundreds, some part-time and some full-time employees notified of termination."

As of last week, UTB-TSC enrollment numbers were finalized for spring 2012 and stood at 12,985, but the critical numbers are enrollment figures for fall 2013, Artibise said. This is because it is anticipated that UTB and TSC will report enrollment as fully separate entities, though they will begin reporting such numbers separately as early as this summer.

Enrollment numbers effect state funding, which in turn effect the university’s finances and subsequently how many faculty and staff it employs.

"The current UTB-TSC budget is ‘X.’ After separation there’s just a UTB budget which is ‘Y’ and it will be smaller than ‘X’ because we have fewer students," Artibise said.

The expectation is that TSC will employ the individuals who’s jobs are cut at UTB, he said.

He added that TSC has expressed to UTB that they will inform the university of what programs they will offer later this month or in March.

Still other factors, such as how much TSC charges for tuition and how general education students will be split among the two schools, will effect UTB’s future plans, Artibise said.

"We do not know whether they’ll do it day one or by how much," he said of the public statements made TSC board members about lowering the college’s tuition. "I obviously can’t speak for them, but it has a big impact on us. Because if prices were the same, the impact on enrollment would be one thing, but if prices are quite different the impact would be something quite different."

The provost said on Monday that first year and second year contract renewals sat on his desk and he would be considering them carefully. He said under UT System rules those hires do not require one year’s notice of termination.

He said the administration has vowed to give a year’s notice of termination to staff too, although they don’t have contracts as faculty does. He said he met with faculty for an hour last week as part of the administration’s continued efforts to communicate.

"We worked very hard to give them clear understanding of how the process will work and why we’re doing what we’re going to do," he said. "I think it’s fair to say the vast majority of faculty understand the process and how it will occur."