May 22, 2008

In our efforts to communicate the latest budget developments here and in Tallahassee in a timely manner, the university is disseminating weekly budget updates from President Modesto A. Maidique. These communiques are sent to our students, faculty and staff, alumni, donors, FIU Board of Trustees, Foundation Board of Directors, President's Council, select media, elected officials and other interested parties. We believe that timely information on a topic of such critical importance will benefit the entire university community and help to continue the university's forward momentum.
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In This Issue:

Dear members of the university community:

This morning hundreds of students, faculty and staff participated in a spirited Town Hall meeting where we discussed money-saving recommendations in light of the $32 million gap we must cover in our 2008-09 budget. As you know, this challenge comes on the heels of significant cuts we took this fiscal year.

I would like to thank everyone who participated at University Park as well as electronically from BBC and the Pines Center. We were able to hear from passionate, thoughtful students and faculty members, as well as members of the larger community who had excellent points to make with regard to the cuts we are proposing. As Provost Berkman said, there is no low-hanging academic fruit at FIU because our programs are consistently good. Still, we must make hard decisions that will reduce our budget for the coming year.

As it stands today, the plan calls for the elimination of approximately 265 positions overall in the next three years; approximately 130 of those would be considered layoffs, the remaining positions will be shifted to other sources of funding, are vacant or will be eliminated through attrition. One third of the positions slated for elimination would be faculty and two-thirds staff.

It is very important to note that these are still recommendations that can be modulated by the feedback and suggestions we received today, as well as the meetings that will take place in the coming weeks. Please continue to share your ideas and your perspective by sending us an email at presmail@fiu.edu. As I mentioned during our meeting today, a final plan will be presented to our Board of Trustees on June 12, and it will make the final decision.

For those who were unable to join us, I will summarize the meeting and ask you to refer to the accompanying Power Point presentation for details. http://president.fiu.edu/docs/05-22-08_budget_townhall.pdf

Early in this process Executive Vice President and Provost Ronald Berkman, CFO and Senior Vice President Vivian Sanchez and I, in consultation with our Board of Trustees, decided that:

• We would not make across-the-board cuts. We feel that targeted, strategic cuts would inflict the least long-term damage to the university and allow us to emerge a stronger institution.
• We would design a process by which we reviewed all the academic and operations areas of the university that receive state funding.
• We would draft a three-year-plan because all indications are that our budget is not likely to be restored to 2006 levels for years. In fact, given the current economic forecasts, we must be prepared for even deeper cuts late this year or next year.

Academic Affairs

Under the direction of Provost Berkman, Academic Affairs has put forth a multifaceted three-year plan to reduce that budget by $26.5 million. Five strategies were employed (PPP, Page 10):

• generate incremental revenue
• shift to other funding sources
• lower operational costs
• change the curriculum
• close degree programs

One of the largest savings over the three years would be achieved through the closure of 17 degree programs. I will repeat something that is extremely important and was articulated clearly at the Town Hall meeting: students who are currently enrolled in programs that are discontinued will be ensured the opportunity to take the classes they need in order to graduate from the program in a timely manner.

Students are at the top of our priority list as we recommend these cuts. Although we will likely lay off faculty in some areas, we will continue hiring faculty in the areas of greatest need, especially in departments that support the core curriculum.

I would like to thank everyone who turned out in support of specific programs today. We will further consider issues that you raised and ideas offered today before these recommendations are submitted to our Board of Trustees.

Operations

Under the leadership of CFO Vivian Sanchez, the non-academic area of the university has submitted a plan to reduce that budget by $9.2 million in the next three years. Four strategies were employed to reduce this portion of our budget (PPP, page 17):

• lower operational costs
• create new business models
• shift to other funding sources
• consolidate and restructure

As we have discussed in previous budget updates, we are looking to save energy and other costs by experimenting with a 4-day/10-hour work week for part of this summer, reducing the size of our fleet of vehicles, and moving from liquid propane to natural gas, for example. We have found that simply changing the way we pay some bills will generate revenue. We will be shifting some expenses to other sources of revenues, we will reduce or eliminate some less-essential programs, and will change the way we deliver some services.

Again, I thank everyone who participated today and all of you who have written to me and others. Please refer to the timeline below for important dates coming up.

Timeline