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USF Overhauls Departments To Counter Budget Cuts

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By ADAM EMERSON

The Tampa Tribune

Published: June 13, 2008

TAMPA - University of South Florida leaders have swept through their various colleges and reworked the way they will deliver a higher education to meet the grim budget realities they now face.

Hit with a loss of $35.6 million from the state, USF leaders plan to overhaul the administration and eliminate duplicate courses in their largest college, Arts and Sciences.

Although the college gains a few institutes that operated on their own at the university, it will lose some disciplines to other colleges.

The proposed changes prompted the college's dean, John Skvoretz, to step down earlier this week. Skvoretz, who will remain on the USF faculty, said he was dismayed watching what he called the "dismantling" of his college.

USF Provost Ralph Wilcox, however, told faculty in a letter Thursday that a multimillion-dollar budget cut from the state "will demand changes in both institutional structure and behavior."

Students will see some of these changes, but the university plans to eliminate no majors or departments. Rather, the College of Arts and Sciences will be rebuilt around three schools: behavioral and social sciences; humanities; and sciences.

Such an overhaul will cut down on the number of duplicate courses offered in different departments, Wilcox said.

For instance, by combining the sciences in one school, the university can offer one statistics class across physics, mathematics, biology and chemistry. Previously, each discipline offered its own statistics course.

In addition, USF will develop a new college featuring some disciplines formerly housed in Arts and Sciences.

The schools of aging studies and social work, for instance, will align with the Louis de la Parte Florida Mental Health Institute. So will criminology, where academics sought closer work with researchers and teachers in social work and mental health, Wilcox said.

Wilcox said the university won't create a new administration for the new college, which will be led by the mental health institute's dean.

To save on administrative costs, some departments will begin sharing resources. Whereas smaller departments may have had their own business managers and accountants, they will begin sharing them, Wilcox said.

The announcement comes as the budget news gets worse for USF and Florida's other public universities and community colleges.

Gov. Charlie Crist, who just signed off on the state's $66 billion budget, on Thursday announced that he's holding back 1 percent of the budget for public agencies for each quarter of the fiscal year that starts July 1. That amounts to a 4 percent cut for the year.

While USF planned for additional cuts by setting aside nearly $15 million, they anticipated those cuts to come in the middle of the year, Wilcox said, adding he was concerned more cuts might come later in the year.

USF President Judy Genshaft told trustees Thursday that the university has laid off about 42 employees - 34 staff members, five administrators and three faculty members.

The pink slips won't stop there, though. As the university sets aside the additional $15 million, more layoffs will follow.

Altogether, the university plans to cut 450 jobs. Most of them are vacant, but USF stands to lose 170 vacant faculty positions.

"I think it's fair to say the university is in chaos," said Harry Vanden, international affairs professor. "Morale is at an all-time low."

Reporter Adam Emerson can be reached at (813) 259-8285 or aemerson@tampatrib.com.

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