This brief article was on The Chronicle of Higher Education website today:
Arizona State Furloughs Some Laid-Off Workers
Some Arizona State University employees who are being laid off will also be subjected to a 15-day furloug, reports The Arizona Republic.
The university, which is eliminating up to 550 positions through attrition and layoffs in response to a state budget crisis, has ordered all of its 12,000 employees to take up to 15 days of unpaid leave by June 30.
“Anyone still getting a paycheck between February 2 and June 30 is affected,” Terri Shafer, an Arizona State spokeswoman, told the newspaper. “It’s across the board because the cuts at the Legislature are so deep.”
State lawmakers recently cut $141.5-million from the appropriations for the three state universities, which also include the University of Arizona and Northern Arizona University. —Eric Kelderman
That's really, really nasty. You get a notice telling you you're laid off as of some future date, and then subsequently told you'll be furloughed between now and then. I liked the suggestion of one commenter who said, "I think everyone should take off the last two weeks of the semester, including final exam week."
Presumably President Michael Crow will be furloughed from his $728,750 job also.
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The headline in the afternoon update to the Chronicle of Higher Ed read, "Arizona State Furloughs Some Laid-Off Workers." I read it so quickly (and obviously optimistically) that I read it as if there were an "instead" in the headline somewhere, as in "Arizona State Furloughs Laid-Off Workers Instead of Laying Them Off." In the two-seconds I gave to reading the headlines to the Chronicle headlines I thought, "Well, at least that's not quite as bad."
ReplyDeleteObviously, it's time to put my Grinch hat back on. Clearly there's not enough cynicism flowing through me right now...
I did exactly the same thing, having earlier heard of the layoffs at ASU. btw, if 15 days is 3 work weeks, I figure that's going to cost Crow somewhere in the ballpark of $42K.
ReplyDeleteClemson furloughed staff and faculty, for 5 days I think. Our president at USC has said he will do everything he can to avoid that, which will be admirable given that we've had some of the deepest, if not the deepest, cuts in the country. But if he does, my question will be, "So, does my tenure clock get extended by 5 days?" (Obviously, no faculty member working toward tenure or promotion is going to sit at home and watch movies for 5 days, and probably not even those already at full professor!)
ReplyDeleteHere at PSU President Spanier has already announced there will very likely (read: "definitely") be no raises on July 1 for any employees, but they are doing everything to avoid layoffs or furloughs.
ReplyDeleteThis is astonishing. What I wrote on my blog is that that just when people are going to need advanced training, we see a decline in the ability of our institutions to provide it - Welcome to George Bush's economy. It's topsy-turvy. When you would think we need more teaching and more students should be headed back to school, you get less instruction, and no resources.
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