USF Union Seeks Budget Cut Delay

TAMPA - As the University of South Florida prepares to announce its budget-cutting plan this week, its faculty union is saying, not so fast.

Over the weekend, union leaders sent an e-mail calling on the university administration to suspend any plans to reorganize USF's various academic departments so the faculty can discuss pending cuts further.

University officials plan to announce their cost-cutting efforts Wednesday to USF trustees. Although USF has to cut about $35 million because of a drop in state aid, administrators have been planning to eliminate more than $50 million in case legislators take away even more in the middle of the school year, as anticipated.

Some argue, however, that the university has cash in reserve to absorb at least some of these cuts. Union President Sherman Dorn pointed to some assets at USF's disposal classified as "unrestricted."

Unrestricted net assets, according to February's audit of USF's finances, "are available to the University for any lawful purpose."

By the end of the 2006-07 fiscal year, USF had about $240 million in such assets, a number that has grown over the past decade.

Dorn concedes that not all that money is available to stave off cuts. He added, though, that "there is the question of values and priorities: Why should students, faculty and staff suffer the brunt of the Legislature's decisions when USF has resources that could be used to buffer academics from the worst of the state budget cuts?"

USF spokesman Michael Hoad said the university commits much of that money to other needs. For example, the budgets for auxiliary services, such as alumni and athletic associations, originate in this "unrestricted" classification.

There was unspent money at the end of the fiscal year: about $70 million. That is the equivalent of one month's payroll and expenses for the university, Hoad said, adding that trustees want to keep a month of cash on hand.

Regardless, the university plans to tap into that unspent pot of money to help balance the budget, Hoad said. The problem comes with using one-time cash to bankroll jobs requiring recurring amounts of money.

"Real multiyear commitments to faculty require recurring money," Hoad said. "The cuts are made to recurring funds.

"We believe the trustees' desire for at least one-month cash reserve makes sense, especially given the strong potential for greater cuts during the course of the next fiscal year."

Dorn argued, however, that the university must do a better job showing where these assets go. Layoffs of faculty and staff will only mean larger class sizes and a depreciated academic environment for students, he said.

The question, Dorn said, comes down to choices: "The choice of the administration today is which takes priority, the academic mission or the reserve pool of unrestricted assets," he said.