Budget Bust: Slowly disappearing secretaries

10/03/08-"Budget Bust" is part of a weekly series about the effects of budget cuts at the University of Rhode Island. While the University of Rhode Island is amid the worst financial crisis in recent memory, campus organizations are suffering: athletic teams are being cut, faculty have been offered early retirement incentives and secretaries are slowly disappearing from department offices.

"I don't think any department, academic or administrative, has been unaffected by these cuts. So there are no 'sacred cows,'" said Vice President of Administration Robert Weygand in response to a question about entities that would receive cuts as a last resort.

Weygand said URI is getting about 12 percent of its budget from the state government. While it's not an all time low - the funding levels are at about the same level as the early '90s - it might feel like it when inflation is taken into account.

"It is one of the most drastic cutbacks we've ever seen," Weygand said. "We cannot absorb more cuts like we've seen over these last few years."

Weygand said in the fiscal years of 2008, 2009 and 2010, URI is looking at a total of $30 million in cutbacks from the state, and at a recent Rhode Island Board of Governors for Higher Education meeting, board members discussed finding alternate sources of revenue and more "autonomy" from the government.

When budgets are cut, Weygand said, departments lose money, and the department heads must decide how they are going to absorb the cuts. Many departments had secretaries retire, while some departments are now sharing secretaries and others don't have one at all, he said.

"The best thing out of all this mess we're in," Weygand said, "[is that] the university is functioning the way it needs to be, albeit thin, but it's a testament to the university faculty and staff. You have to give the university great praise for what they've accomplished. They are truly going beyond what is required of their work."

And some university professors would agree with Weygand.

Economics professor Arthur Mead, whose department now has a joint-secretary with psychology, wouldn't say the departments are "sharing" a secretary. Previously the department had their own secretaries.

"We have a psychology department who will help us," Mead said. "It takes people who are paid quite highly and has them doing tasks that they really shouldn't be spending their time doing. I think there's something wrong with that model."

He said the job of the secretary has also changed. When Mead began teaching about 30 years ago, he said secretaries would type materials such as syllabi for professors, but today professors type their own class materials. He would support the sharing of secretaries, he said, if each department received equal attention from that secretary, which isn't happening now.

"We're struggling," Mead said. "These are tough things that all organizations go through. In the space of a couple of years, things have gone from black to white."

Mead also said he thinks students should be upset about the loss of secretaries, which can make seeing professors more difficult.

"It's hard to get students to do more than complain to other students," Mead said. "You guys are paying the tuition, and if you don't voice your concerns, you don't get heard. It's kind of like the presidential election. Young people don't vote. How much attention are they going to pay to you?"

Tim Hennessey, a political science professor, said the loss of secretaries has not yet taken a toll on his department, but he thinks it will in the near future.

"Eventually, this is going to toll on us, because we have two graduate programs," Hennessey said. "I think it's going to be really tough second semester."

He said the loss of secretaries has not compromised the department's academic duties, but it is requiring the professors to work harder.

Vice Provost Clifford Katz said paper work is still being filed, so a precise list of departments without secretaries was not available by the time the Cigar went to press. Precise cost savings figures could not be found, but at the BOG meeting earlier this week, Higher Education Commissioner Jack Warner said retirements are projected to save the BOG about $1.1 to $1.5 million.