Budget cuts ‘will do damage’: UO administrators speak on financial outlook

Questions about potential layoffs and program eliminations at the University of Oregon dominated a town hall meeting Monday with two of the university’s top officials.

The answers from UO President John Karl Scholz and Provost Christopher Long were light on specifics.

The university is facing a $25 million to $30 million budget deficit. Officials say UO needs to cut 4% in its administrative departments and 2.5% cuts across schools and colleges due to difficulties with out-of-state enrollment and federal and state funding.

“We have multiple things happening here: the pay cuts, the budget cuts that we’re going to be working on over the summer and also the efforts to get the budgets in line with expenses in colleges and the university,” Long said. “It could very well be the case that we see some layoffs.”

The hourlong town hall was held in the Redwood Auditorium in the Erb Memorial Union. Roughly 100 people attended in person with an additional 700 people watching in a YouTube livestream, which is available to watch now.

Questions were submitted via an online form. More than 100 questions were submitted, but Scholz and Long had time to answer only 27.

Long said that no decisions have yet been made on which programs might be targeted for closure. 

He said when a decision is made to close a program, a first priority would be to “make sure that students can complete whatever program they’re enrolled in.” He said that effort would be tackled “ in dialogue with those programs.”

Another question referred to the “drip drip” of information about potential cutbacks, saying the slow release of details is causing a looming feeling of anxiety among the university community.

Scholz said he and other university officials were “committed to trying to continue to communicate clearly as the summer goes on. The provost has already met a couple times with the University Senate Budget Committee as part of this communication.”

Scholz outlined a list of three “principles” administrators will use to help guide budget decisions. 

“One is to try to allow academic unit leaders to help, in important ways, guide what’s about to happen or guide our plans. Another is to try to communicate clearly and as transparently as we can. A third is to use data, when we can, to help establish where cuts are going to do the least damage. Because they will do damage,” he said.

Another question asked how the university plans to cut costs while still ensuring staff are paid competitively and fairly.

Scholz said the university would meet the terms of collective bargaining agreements and would honor “the promises we made.” But said the university must be in a mindset to “do less better.”

The target for the administration to have its plans in place is mid-September, Scholz said, in alignment with the Sept. 15 and 16 Board of Trustees meetings.

“We’ve not navigated the challenges we face if we say, ‘Oh, everything’s gonna be the same. We’re gonna end up having to lay people off and nothing is gonna change, we’re just gonna ask people to work harder,’” Scholz said. “We can’t. People are working and so we have to figure out what we can do less of and choose those things wisely.”