Wim Wiewel on the Budget

Yesterday afternoon, PSU President Wim Wiewel, along with VP Lindsay Desrochers, addressed an overflow audience about the current budget situation. (It really was overflow--they had to remove a wall to accommodate all the anxious staff in attendence.) He had prepared a nice Powerpoint Presentation, the slides of which were provided to attendees--flip through it if you want more detail than this post provides.

Where We Are
The current situation is this: recently, the state legislature asked PSU to develop a 30% budget reduction scenario (a third of the PSU budget comes from the state, or $234 million). President Wiewel said flatly that this isn't possible; in addition, it appears to violate the terms of the federal stimulus. PSU is actually planning for cuts of 20-22%--which is worse than their worst-case scenario of a few months ago. To meet these cuts, PSU is developing a strategy that includes:

• Tuition increases (13% resident undergrad, 10% for grad and non-residents).
• Differential tuition.
• A potential 4.6% reduction in salaries (the state's request). Unclear whether this means furlough days or actual cuts.
• Staff reductions. Likely, 40-50 FTE, but could go up to 120 (out of 3,500).
• Campus closures during holidays, reductions in travel, equipment, and so on.

Bottom Line
In her discussion of the budget issues, Lindsay Desrochers noted that the salary reductions are a "bargainable issue." Neither the state nor PSU can mandate cuts (without declaring exigency, which is another matter altogether--one not discussed yesterday). Since we don't know how bad the situation is or will get, no one could discuss actual numbers.

Later, during Q&A, someone asked what the practical difference between salary cuts and FTE reductions were. President Wiewel, who was impressively candid throughout the meeting, responded wryly: "Practically, it means you have less money in your pocket." He elaborated, mentioning that for salaried workers it wouldn't make much difference; however, there are so many categories of workers at PSU that it would depend on individual situations. He also noted that SEIU had offered to take furloughs.

Finally, Linday Desrochers, responding to a question, did say, "there will be cuts" to jobs (I considered titling this post "There Will Be Blood, but it seemed a little melodramatic). President Wiewel was optimistic that the churn of employees might mitigate this somewhat, but again, it's too early to tell.

I was impressed with the candor and collegiality of the presentation. It never seemed like we were being managed or that it was a PR effort. Things are bad, and President Wiewel appears to want to keep the community as informed as possible with news as it develops.

If you want more detail about the budget or budget process, the PSU Budget page has a lot of detail. If you'd like to comment or ask questions, send those to budgetcomments(at)pdx.edu.