Sixteen staff members in the McCombs School of Business were notified Monday that they will no longer have jobs starting Jan. 31.
The business school has to reallocate a total of $3.7 million to pay for faculty hiring and merit pay raises. UT President William Powers outlined those priorities in his State of the University address in September.
Every department in the school was impacted by the cuts, but the larger departments — including the Undergraduate Program Office, the MBA Program Office and Computer Services — had to eliminate more people.
McCombs Dean Tom Gilligan circulated an e-mail in September notifying the staff about a 5 percent reduction to the overall staff size within the school. He sent another message Monday announcing that the cuts had been finalized, and the eliminated staff members were notified by their supervisors throughout the day.
According to Gilligan’s e-mail, laid-off staff will have the option to receive counseling and will be given “special consideration” in future University hiring. The dean will hold a town hall meeting to address staff and faculty concerns today at 2 p.m. in Amphitheater 204 of the AT&T Executive Education and Conference Center.
Staff Council Chairman Benjamin Bond, a training specialist in the school, said that the staff supports the dean, but eliminating staff positions could impact the day-to-day operations of the faculty and administrators.
“If there are reductions to programs in our office, there will be slower turnaround times,” Bond said. “We might have to take requests to process information or run reports further in advance.”
Gilligan said in an e-mail interview that the school will hopefully reassign duties to minimize larger workloads on remaining staff.
Management Chairwoman Pamela Haunschild said the average faculty member in her department has “quite a bit” of interaction with staff personnel on a day-to-day basis. She said other cuts have been discussed within the individual departments, but she could not comment specifically on what might be cut.
Bond said the month-long waiting period between first hearing about the layoffs and actually receiving the notification helped staff members prepare for the cuts but also sustained an atmosphere of anxiety throughout the college.
“In corporate America, many times you’ll be notified you’re getting laid off and then walked to the car on the same day,” Bond said. “But at the same time, there’s more time to worry about it. A lot of people have been nervous and on-edge.”
Chrissy Lovell, an administrative assistant in the Ford Career Center, said even though the cuts were handled with sensitivity, they negatively impact staff morale.
“The morale is about as good can be expected,” Lovell said. “We’re all upset for the people who have been impacted, especially because it is so close to the holidays.”
By trimming the staff and eliminating vacant positions, the college should save $500,000 this fiscal year and $1 million next fiscal year, Gilligan told the Texan. The reallocated money will fund a 2 percent raise pool for faculty and staff and free up approximately $700,000 for new faculty hiring.
At a previous town hall meeting, Gilligan told the staff there would not be second round of layoffs. Bond said he is still nervous about the potentiality of future layoffs.
UT staff began feeling the effects of the tight budget early this year. Powers implemented a University-wide staff salary freeze on Feb. 11, which will not be lifted until the beginning of the next school year.
Business honors sophomore Natasha Marwaha said the staff cuts concerned her because they might translate into reductions in the services offered to McCombs students. Marwaha uses the Millennium Lab in the school several times a week because it is one of the few computer labs on campus open late. She said she was concerned that the lab might close early if there are not as many people available to work there.
“If people are starting to get laid off within the University, it does make me feel a little pessimistic about entering into the work force,” Marwaha said.
