Are more cuts coming to Penn State? Official talks budget, future at faculty senate meeting
Many Penn State faculty across the commonwealth have expressed fear and anxiety about the potential for budget cuts and job losses but, during a faculty senate meeting Tuesday, a university official intimated that such concerns were largely overblown.
Nick Jones, university provost and executive vice president, acknowledged Penn State is still going through a “difficult budgetary period” and that some cuts will still “probably” occur in the coming months. But he said Tuesday nothing has yet been decided and that any universitywide cuts in the next fiscal year will be no larger than the past two years.
University departments were told earlier this year to plan for a 3% cut, or rescission, for the fiscal year that starts July 1 and runs through June 30, 2023. Unrelated to any universitywide moves, Penn State Altoona held a town hall last month to report it would need to cut nearly $5 million over the next two years due to shrinking enrollment there, according to attendees. Around that time, other campuses — such as Berks and Fayette — also declined to renew the contracts of several long-term faculty due to specific campus/program shortfalls, moves that made many instructors wonder if similar cuts were on their way to other campuses.
They, largely, were not. But there was little communication between the administration and faculty to indicate that. Jones said this process was identical to past years when little concern was expressed, but faculty members on Tuesday demanded more transparency and accountability.
“We recently heard the troubling news of recent faculty contract non-renewals, of those receiving shorter contracts and/or those who will lose their jobs because of program closures,” said Bonj Szczygiel, an associate professor and chair of the faculty senate. “Among these numbers are senior faculty who have been loyal, dedicated long-term employees of Penn State. This news is troubling and made worse — I will suggest — by a lot of conjecture and misunderstanding through a lack of information and communication.
“The rumors, above and beyond the harsh reality, simply fueled fear and concern. And this fear and concern rippled throughout our community, and those fears and concerns were real. They were palpable and, again, unnecessary.”
Universitywide, Jones said budget meetings with all units will not begin until May 9, when Penn State President-elect Neeli Bendapudi officially takes over. And, before any budget cuts are implemented, the university first needs to figure out how much aid the state is providing the next fiscal year and the board of trustees needs to formally approve the budget in July.
Although departments were told earlier this year to plan for a 3% rescission, Jones said it’s not yet certain what might ultimately happen.
“If there is a possibility of a rescission, it’s imprudent for (departments at PSU) to have not planned for it. So we asked units to plan,” he said. “We are not saying there will be a rescission. We might have a 3% rescission. We might have something less than that. There might be no rescission — but I think that’s probably unlikely as well.”
According to Jones, Penn State proposed a 2% rescission last year with the possibility of an additional 1% rescission imposed mid-year, which eventually happened. The year before, in 2020-2021, a 3% rescission was imposed. And, in 2019-2020, an unplanned 1% rescission occurred due to the pandemic. In past years, Jones said he was told by executives that 5% cuts would “hurt” but could be shouldered, 10% would be “really hard,” and 15% would be “disastrous.”
Because tuition is Penn State’s main revenue source, declining enrollment due to the pandemic — which has become a national issue — has a far-reaching budgetary impact. Jones said the pandemic essentially cost the university $300 million out-of-pocket, exhausting most of its strategic reserves and making such rescissions necessary.
“We are going through a difficult budgetary period for the university,” Jones added. “Continued belt tightening is necessary.”
Several faculty senators spoke up during a Q&A session with Jones, further explaining how they’ve heard different messages at different levels of the university and that such cuts, however small, have an indelible impact.
“Our unit, particularly those of us that are smaller, have nothing left to cut,” said Julie Gallagher, an associate professor of both history and American studies at Penn State Brandywine. “And, year after year, midway through, we’re being told to give back 1%, 2%, 3% — and some campuses more. That just can’t persist.”
Added Julio Palma, an assistant professor of chemistry at Penn State Fayette: “This uncertainty is not good for the morale of the faculty. The morale at my campus is very low.”
At Penn State Altoona, a protest was staged Monday in support of several programs set to be cut, such as integrative arts. At Penn State Berks, a similar protest and petition were organized a few weeks ago to save a longtime teaching professor from not having her contract renewed. And, at Fayette, concern permeated through the campus when one faculty member discovered they wouldn’t have a job next semester.
Several faculty members at commonwealth campuses echoed similar concerns to the CDT, saying cuts — however small — are beginning to impact certain campuses and departments.
“When you have a small (department) that may only have a handful of faculty, you lose two faculty and that’s a pretty big loss in terms of, ‘Can you still deliver that degree?’” Randall Newnham, a professor of political science at Penn State Berks, told the CDT earlier this month.
During Tuesday’s faculty senate meeting at University Park’s Kern Building, Jones characterized job losses at Penn State as difficult but emphasized that the land-grant university has still fared better than many of its peers. In 2020 alone, based on reporting from the New York Times, one Midwest university eliminated 18 majors, another laid off 97 unionized faculty members, and yet another planned to cut 131 full-time faculty.
Jones said cuts have so far been limited. According to the provost, over the last two years, 52 non-faculty staff were laid off, a majority from the closing of the Nittany Lion Inn and from a reduction in force among Information Technology employees. While that might sound like a lot, Jones reminded faculty that’s out of 21,000 full-time employees and 14,000 part-time employees.
When it came to faculty, 26 non-tenure line faculty were recently not offered new contracts — 18 due to low enrollment and eight for other reasons, such as faculty who were hired only temporarily to fill in for someone on sabbatical.
“These are decisions that are made every year by deans and chancellors across all parts of Penn State. They are not taken lightly,” Jones said. “They are very carefully considered. Nobody wants to do this. But when the enrollments just don’t support the renewal of a contract, those are difficult decisions that have to be made.”
Looking ahead, Jones acknowledged that he and the faculty senate chair discussed the prospect of organizing a joint committee on the university budget. That way, he said, select members of the faculty senate could meet with a university budget officer on a regular basis — potentially every three months — to further discuss any concerns.
Faculty intimated they understood difficult decisions have to be made. But they also didn’t want to be in the dark about those decisions.
“If we are ‘One Penn State,’ we need to be able to celebrate all the great events in our midst but also be informed when hard decisions must be made, where they’re being made and their extent,” said Szczygiel, the faculty senate chair. “And we should be told these with clarity and transparency regarding financial accountability behind those reasons.”
A final budget for the 2022-2023 fiscal year will be submitted at the July 22 board of trustees meeting, which will take place at Penn State York.
This story was originally published April 27, 2022 at 5:17 PM.
