In what I believe to be the first public interview of new Vice President of Budget and Planning Elmira Magnum, Day Hall has announced that FY 2011 will entail $71 MM in further cuts and more layoffs are on the way: Total operating expenditures are likely to be $1.88 billion. That includes $20 million less than we began with last year from Albany, increased tuition and fees, sponsored research expenditures and other enterprise operations. Overall we expect to reduce unrestricted operating expenses by about 4.5 percent, or about $71 million. Will the new budget mean layoffs? When and how would they be announced? The deans and vice presidents will make decisions about layoffs. Based on the Initiatives Coordination Office's (ICO) work, [units] have identified 44 positions and 147 vacant positions [that would remain unfilled] which they could use to meet their budget reduction. One of the objectives of the ICO's work has been to identify those opportunities, but it is up to the units to take action. Where are we with the budget deficit? Cornell will have an operating deficit of $31 million at the end of fiscal 2011, down from $102 million at the end of 2010. We plan to eliminate the remaining balance by the end of 2013. We are on target but to balance the budget we have a few more tough decisions to make and will need the full cooperation of the campus.How does the fiscal 2011 budget compare to this year's?
To put the cuts into perspective, $71 MM is about a third of the University's total income earned off of its endowment. And the University will be left with a structural deficit of $31 MM -- less than 2% of its total Ithaca budget -- as compared to Dartmouth's 14% gap.
Maybe we should be happy that Steve Donahue did leave for Boston College. That saved some money, right?
