By Jamie Fetty

Administration editor

Eastern officials say they will be leaving several administrative positions vacant and may cut some special programs and equipment expenditures to keep in line with the state’s callback of $2.3 million.

Of the $2.3 million Gov. George Ryan has called back because of a weak state economy, $1.7 million will cover insurance for university faculty, a bill previously paid by the state, and the rest, about $600,000, amounts to a straight state appropriation callback.

As part of the effort to the return funds to the state, the university is geared to slice $432,300 from the budgets of the vice presidential areas.

Interim President Lou Hencken and the university’s vice presidents worked out the cuts following three rules. Each was to make a cut proportional to the percent of the budget he or she controlled, and each was to cut only from his or her area and all effort should be made to preserve academic quality, Hencken said.

According to the rules, Shirley Stewart, acting vice president for student affairs, was directed to cut $25,000 from her area.

Jeff Cooley, vice president for business affairs, is to cut $50,000, Jill Nilsen, vice president for external relations, will cut $45,000 and Hencken will cut $10,000.

Academic affairs makes up most of the university’s budget, so Blair Lord, vice president of academic affairs, took the biggest cut, $302,300. But Lord said the distribution of his cuts is in the hands of many others.

Lord’s budget is distributed among the deans of all the areas under his control, namely the College of Sciences, the College of Arts and Humanities, the Lumpkin College of Business and Applied Sciences, the College of Education and Professional Studies, the College of Continuing Education, the Center for Academic Technology and Support, Enrollment Management, Gateway Programs, Center for Academic Support and Achievement, Academic Advising and the Honors Program.

The four main colleges receive the majority of the budget, and the deans of those colleges control their section of the budget independently of Lord. Each has been designated an amount they must give back to the state, Lord said.

Mary Anne Hanner, acting dean of the College of Sciences, said that cut “will be absorbed at the college level” rather than being distributed to her academic departments, but she declined to say how much Lord asked her college to come up with.

“If the cut is more severe or permanent, we may have to revisit the individual departments,” Hanner said.

So far, it looks like dollars from the College of Sciences will come from not filling vacant positions and money set aside for special programs, Hanner said.

“We’ll use money that we generally just have available to us on a one time basis,” she said.

James Johnson, dean of the College of Arts and Humanities, Elizabeth Hitch, dean of the College of Education and Professional Studies, nor Martha Brown, acting dean of the Lumpkin College of Business and Applied Sciences were not available for comments.

Shirley Stewart, acting vice president for student affairs, said she is coming up with her funds by not filling positions for an associate director of financial aid or a university police officer.

“In both of those cases, those are appropriated dollars,” Stewart said Wednesday.

Cooley said his $50,000 will be trimmed from reserve accounts for equipment, like computers and printers for offices, and mowers and tractors for Facilities Planning and Management.

Administrators also took into account reductions in personnel services that could be made by leaving positions vacant and taking advantage of a drop in retirement numbers. In total it is estimated that the maneuver will save $345,000.

Cooley said he saved an additional $75,000 by leaving vacant an associate vice president position and the director of business services/treasurer position.

Lord said he saved $250,000 in accrued sick leave payouts due to a drop in retirements.

In addition, funds from various other operations and departments on campus are also being utilized to give back to the state.

The university is saving about $260,000 in utilities thanks to lowered thermostats, a warmer winter and some savings on water bills, Cooley said at a presentation delivered to CUPB last Friday.

Eastern will use about $400,000 from a $1.7 million budget for deferred maintenance. Cooley said that projects for which equipment or labor had already been paid for would continue.

But others, like rehabilitating the second floor ceiling of Old Main, will wait.

About $800,000 in reserve accounts for equipment and computers will go back to the state, but Lord said that Eastern still has other funds allocated for equipment and computers.

“This will not be a no-equipment year,” said Lord.

Also, a change in accounting policy happened to provide Eastern with $100,000 to be returned.

Before the change, revenue from summer school was directed toward the fiscal year during which most of it took place. Fiscal years begin July 1, and usually summer school revenue would be directed toward the new fiscal year. The change requires accounting for revenue on a day-by-day basis, so some summer school funds go to one fiscal year and some go to the next.

Hencken has said that Eastern is taking a “two-prong” approach: prong one is cutting down this year’s budget, and prong two will be figuring out what to do next year if the cuts turn out to be a base budget cut.

One-time or base cut?

Ryan has direct control over about 25 percent of the state’s total expenditures. He asked all the state agencies he cut from to make a base budget cut – except higher education and K-12 schools, Hazel Loucks, deputy governor for education and work force, said during a visit to Eastern last week.

Cutting Eastern’s base budget would mean permanently taking $2.3 million out of the general funds, or state money, that the university receives. If Ryan decides to do that, something still within the realm of possibility, Hencken has said it would “seriously affect the academic quality” of Eastern.

The plans the university is making now use funds that are available only once to pay the insurance costs and the state, in hopes that Eastern’s budget will only be cut this year.

Hencken and Nilsen left Wednesday for Washington to meet with both Illinois senators and representatives to investigate the possibility of acquiring federal funds.

In addition, they plan to meet with six “key representatives” later in the month to convince them that a base budget cut at Eastern would have serious effects.

Kim Furumo, director of the budget office, explained the Illinois Board of Higher Education’s budget recommendations for next fiscal year at last Friday’s meeting of the Council on University Planning and Budget.

The IBHE recommended a 5.4 percent increase in funds for Eastern next year, but Furumo called that “very optimistic.” She also said while she wasn’t aware of plans to do so, raising tuition beyond the Board of Trustees’ approved 5 percent is a possibility to cover the loss of funds that would be experienced if a base budget cut materialized.