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Pending unallotment announcements, University of Minnesota funding may be reduced an estimated $177 million over the next biennium, and as a result President Robert Bruininks has announced the need for some excruciating budgetary decisions. Most recently, he revealed the reduction of more than 1,200 paid positions at the University. Many of these will come in the form of natural employee attrition, whereby open positions go unfilled or early retirement incentives sweeten the pot for those soon to retire. Unfortunately for hundreds of University employees, attrition alone won’t bring solvency. That means layoffs.
During tough financial times at the University, emotions and animosities can run high. It seems as though University faculty inevitably become pitted against staff, both of whom would likely prefer to see the shortfall mediated by increasing students’ tuition. The polarizing nature of budget cuts means that a strong and dedicated leadership is all the more important for maintaining our sense of community at the University. Before a single employee becomes laid off, President Bruininks and the broader University administrative leadership should practice a little self-sacrifice. A mere 10 percent pay cut would suffice; anything to illustrate solidarity and empathy to those employees who will flat-out lose their job.
Dean Thomas Fisher and four others in leadership in the College of Design announced they would take voluntary 10 percent cuts in late May. Other college deans and administrators should follow suit before a swath of lower-earning University employees are dealt pink slips. The University could save hundreds of thousands of dollars if the 25 highest paid administrators took just a 10 percent pay cut. It’s highly inappropriate if not outright cruel for administration to dole out sympathetic platitudes along with pink slips when they haven’t yet taken a cut themselves.
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Who else in town stood with the College of Design Admins?
http://bit.ly/one_of_these_people_is_not_like_the_others
The Doc
Sharing the Pain
From Minnesota Daily,BY Bryce Haugen
PUBLISHED: 03/01/2007
Bruininks' Salary:
"In March, Bruininks received a 5 percent pay raise, bumping him to $384, 221 for academic year 2006-07. The Board of Regents voted unanimously in December to extend Bruininks contract through 2011. The deal included a 10 percent pay raise for 2007-08, to $423,000 and a 7.5 percent raise for 2008-09, to $455,000. Bruininks contract indicates that the Board of Regents will determine salary increases for subsequent years at a future meeting. Even with the raises, Bruininks will still make less money than more than half of his fellow Big Ten presidents.
"I've never made my compensation an issue and I'm not going to," Bruininks said. "I feel I'm fairly compensated." He said he agreed with the Board's logic that the University of "Minnesota should not develop a reputation for having the lowest compensation level for its chief executive." The contract also provides University housing at Eastcliff and a deferred compensation package totaling $150,000 in 2007-08 and increasing by $25,000 in each subsequent year."
Does this annual increase in deferred compensation mean that there is one U employee whose salary has not been frozen?
Information a little out of date...
"Even with the raises, Bruininks will still make less money than more than half of his fellow Big Ten presidents."
President Bruininks total compensation has been reported as around $740 K
From the Nov 21, 2008 Strib:
University of Minnesota President Robert Bruininks is among the best-paid university presidents in the United States.
Salary and benefits of $733,421 landed him spot No. 7 on a list of public university presidents with the highest compensation released this week by the Chronicle of Higher Education.
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Of the public Big Ten schools only OSU and Michigan have higher paid executives...
President Bruininks could take a 10% cut and he would still be well ahead of other BigTen executives including some that are, arguably, doing a better job:
Gee - Ohio State - $1,346,225 [sic(k)]
Coleman - Michigan - $760,196
Bruininks - Minnesota - $733,421
less 5% - 696,750
less 10% - 660,079
Spanier - Penn State - $611,367
Mason - Iowa - 583,000
Simon - Michigan State $572,000
Cordova - Purdue - 501,000
McRobbie - Indiana - 484,000
Herman - Illinois - $427,500
Riley - Wisconsin - $358,745
I hope that President Bruininks, and the rest of us, keep these numbers in mind when the pink slips are handed out....
What a sick, twisted,
What a sick, twisted, envious, classist boor.
Classist?
Tsk, tsk...
The Doctor does indeed sometimes get sick. He has been accused of being boring. And he envies your apparent disconnection from reality.
But, do you have any, ah, arguments?
Or is name-calling the limit of your rhetorical skill?
The Doc - always looking for a higher level of dialog on the Daily's comments page.
Thanks for replying Dr. Pangloss!
I knew you would. You simply can't help it. It's a mental illness / personality defect.
Which serves to underscore what I believe the metric should be for staff cuts at the UofM:
The UofM staff that spend the greatest amount of their day posting comments at the Daily's website, should be the first to be cut.
You, Dr. Pangloss, are the prime example of wasted revenue. Your posts are legion. My tax dollars support your endless non-productivity. YOU ARE THE LAST PERSON who should be judging the worth of one employee over another. You are a pathetic hypocrite. So, why not man-up, do the honorable thing for the University, its students and staff – and resign.
Thank you in advance of your resignation.
Once again, I do not see any argument here...
It doesn't take very long to respond to arguments - when there aren't any!
People like you have to realize that you can't just say anything you want - and get away with it all the time. This is a university site and we expect better of you here.
The ocean is vodka and the moon is made of green cheese, etc? Unfortunately, you are capable of exhausting the patience of even a three hundred year old guy...
When you write things in capital letters - does that make 'em true? But I digress...
Gotta get back to work, how about you? I've had meetings all day, including participating at the open forum Regents meeting. You see, that's part of my job. If you pay taxes - as I do - - presumably you've got something better to do than go after the poor 'ole Doc? Why are you so full of bile and venom?
As a great philosopher once said:
Hasta la vista, baby.
(If you are one of these folks who has to have the last word, the floor's all yours.)
The Doc
My Argument is thus
You are deadweight and as such are wasting precious resources that would be better used elsewhere. The remedy? You should resign you position at once. Do you agree or not?
You rail against waste, then waste resources yourself. That makes you a hypocrite. Do you agree or not.
"Why are you so full of bile and venom?"
It's just the effect hypocrite have on me. And many others.
"(If you are one of these folks who has to have the last word, the floor's all yours.)"
My! You are so premptively witty!
Apparently the daily has
Apparently the daily has trolls...
"But, do you have any, ah,
"But, do you have any, ah, arguments?"
That you come here to argue is both obvious and sad.
You spout off like that
You spout off like that again, honey, and I'll show you what that hole is for.
The Doc - because doctors need a little loving too!
Post above is fraudulent
not mine.
The Doctor
Your point is well taken, Brittany
I should not have used the words "argument" or "argue." I should have said something like: "Do you have anything constructive to say."
Keep on commenting and don't ever be intimidated by people telling you to shut up.
Best wishes,
The Real Dr. Panglosss
Apparently the good "Doctor"
Apparently the good "Doctor" is confused regarding boor v. bore. Doctor? I think not.
Nah, the Doc knows...
He just tried to put one by a rube, but you didn't let him.
Anyone know what Yudof is
Anyone know what Yudof is making now? Maybe he should have stuck around for the cash.
Funny you should ask -> He and other admins took cut recently
From the UCSD Guardian (June 4, 2009)
"UC President Mark G. Yudof will make a 5 percent reduction to his annual salary next month, along with the salaries of all UC chancellors and other top executives, in response to deep systemwide budget reductions."
"UC chancellors receive an average salary of $312,400 a year, and Yudof earns a base salary of $591,000 annually."
He probably makes a lot more than 591K$ per years. There are all sorts of side deals that these people negotiate.
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President Bruininks and the U of M administration, your turn?
Top Heavy
Perhaps administration should re-examine the concept of "part-time" administrators. The AHC especially has historically appointed individuals to provide administrative leadership in addition to retaining their faculty responsibilities of research and teaching. In reality (other than countless meetings) administrative duties should not be be a full time undertaking.
This is a system that not only keeps administrators grounded in the realities of faculty pressures and needs it results in a more symbiotic relationship (contributing to the mission) rather than the current paristitic situation. Most importantly rather than just consuming crucial resources this scenario allows for additional resources be both generated and available to other faculty and staff.
I like chicken. And beef as
I like chicken. And beef as well.
-The Doctor: Because nothing beats meat.
Again not the Doctor
I see the juveniles are out.\
Pangloss
Dear Doctor
Please stop playing with yourself.
recently laid off
the lay offs have been happening for most of the last academic school year. they were and are quietly occurring under the guise of "non-renewal of contracts," a.k.a. laid off. many of those who took and take the early retirement package were told there contracts would not be renewed (a.k.a. laid off) and accepted the early retirement package or a severance package, which doesn't seem to be counted as laid-off by the upper brass. Human resources at the U has been very busy dealing with these cases for quite some time.
Other ways to save besides cutting staff, where are ours?
Maybe President Bob should read this article. I guess other schools have administrations with some creative thought to saving money and don't go immediately to reducing staff. I would like to especially draw his attention to the course load of the faculty of Carleton right here in Minnesota. How much money would the U save if they bumped faculty workload from 4 courses an academic to 5?
Here's the article: http://www.nytimes.com/2009/06/19/education/19college.html
If you increased the course
If you increased the course load of professors at the U, then they would piss and moan about how they're doing more work for the same wage and how that's essentially a pay cut. The only way to get U employees not to complain is to convert them into former U employees. You don't have to listen to them, then.
The College of Liberal Arts
The College of Liberal Arts has already started requiring faculty to teach 5 classes a semester. Many other Universities around the country have been doing the same.
Oops, typo
5 classes a year, not semester...
the reason bruiniks is so
the reason bruiniks is so highly paid is because he has us on the path to being one of the top three research public universities
don't-cha-know?
professors teach classes? the
professors teach classes?
the only professor ( a visiting professor actually,) who I have had was the one who got me interested in my major when I took his introductory course, since then it has been nothing but grad students who if what they tell me is true are paid only slightly better than fast food workers