June 4, 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:

Board of Trustees meets next Thursday

As you are aware, next week important decisions will be made with regard to our budget for the coming fiscal year. Our Board of Trustees will meet on Thursday, June 12, at 2 p.m. in the Graham Center ballrooms to review recommendations put forth by the leadership team.

We have made every effort to share information with you as we received it and to listen to your thoughts and suggestions regarding how we should steer the institution through the stormiest budget cycle in the university’s history. Many of you have participated in the Town Hall meetings we have held since March and in special meetings of the USPS Senate. The Faculty Senate will be holding a special meeting on June 10. More information can be found on the Senate site at www.fiu.edu/~fsenate.

Some of you have shared ideas with us personally and through email. One need look no farther than the rescinding of our initial recommendation regarding the speech pathology program to know that we have valued your active participation in this process. All of your feedback has had a real and direct impact on the final recommendations that will be presented to our trustees next week.

There is one more opportunity to participate in this process and that is by speaking directly to the Board of Trustees. As I stated in last week’s message, the Board established rules that govern how the public can participate in a public meeting. I would like to again remind anyone who wishes to address the board that all requests to do so must be made seven days before the meeting, which in this case is tomorrow (Thursday, June 5). For more information on BOT procedures, please refer to page 7 of the Board’s operating procedures http://bot.fiu.edu/pdf/2008/022908_Operating_Procedures_BOT.pdf. Chairman David Parker and/or the Board, as appropriate, will decide how many individuals will speak on a given matter and for how long.

For general information on our budget process or to consult previous weeks’ budget updates and Town Hall meetings’ presentations, please visit our dedicated budget web site http://president.fiu.edu/budget1.html.

Four-day weeks start this week

This Friday is the first Friday off going into our modified summer schedule, which calls for 10-hour, 4-day work weeks through July 25. For more information about this initiative visit http://www.fiu.edu/hr/formslibrary/memos/2008_summer_schedule_guidelines.pdf.

This is the first time we are adopting this initiative, and it involves powering down many of our buildings for three days each weekend. We anticipate these actions will have a series of benefits:

• Save the university upwards of $250,000 in energy costs
• Respond to Governor Charlie Crist’s call for green initiatives throughout the State and our own strategic direction
• Save employees money on fuel by commuting four rather than five days a week

I trust that by now supervisors have addressed and resolved any concerns brought forth by the longer work day and are ready to launch this program. It is absolutely essential that we maintain our usual level of professional service during this time. To assist in this process, please find a suggested greeting that you may adapt for your telephone and automatic e-mail reply. http://president.fiu.edu/budget_crisis/voicemail.html.

While electricity will not be shut off in those buildings that will be powered down, they will be kept locked for security reasons as well as to discourage traffic. Special access to a phased-down building must be requested from Public Safety. Powered-down buildings will be kept at 80 degrees Fahrenheit from Thursday at 11 p.m. to Monday morning. You may check on the status of each building by visiting http://facilities.fiu.edu/Documents/News/Summer-Schedule-Facilities-OPS-Matrix.pdf

Independent of whether your building is phased down for the weekend – and especially if it is – please make sure that you and those around you follow some simple steps before leaving your office every Thursday:

• Activate the summer schedule greeting on your phone and email.
• Unplug all electronic devices. (Computers, printers and copy machines generate heat and consume electricity even when turned off but not unplugged.)
• Set all manual thermostats to 80 F.
• Close window shades to keep the sun and heat out.
• Turn off all lights.

The success of this initiative depends largely on you – we need everyone’s participation.

Timeline