As University of Idaho students begin the spring semester, university officials continue to work on the projected $22 million deficit. The projected $14 million deficit for fiscal year 2020 (FY20) has “largely been resolved,” said Brian Foisy, vice president for the Division of Finance and Administration.
Foisy and Assistant Vice President for University Budget and Planning, Trina Mahoney, said departments at UI have been taking one-time reduction cuts from this year’s budget.
It is up to each college or department to determine how they will meet those cuts for Fiscal year 2021 (FY21), Jodi Walker, UI director of communications, said.
Other reductions include a $4 million cut on benefits and a $1.26 million
cut for the Division of Finance and Administration (DFA).
Deans, vice presidents and administrators are already working
on their budget reduction plans for the projected $22 million deficit, Foisy said.
Those plans should be submitted to President C. Scott Green by the end of January.
Reductions
Reductions for FY20 are as follows, Walker said.
- President – $780,000
- Division of Finance & Administration – $1.26 million
- Information Technology Services – $518,000
- Research – $389,000
- Advancement – $330,000
- Benefits – $4 million
Outsourcing
Outsourcing has been a possible solution for the projected deficit. It’s been strongly debated over the past couple of months, with much opposition coming from Facilities Services.
Before break, outsourcing vendors toured the campus in preparation to present a proposal to the Request for Proposal (RFP) selection committee, who then will review the proposals and make a decision based on the cheapest submission with the most innovative solutions.
“A lot of it depends on what comes back from the vendors. If they come back with solutions that are more expensive, then we’ll simply set this whole thing aside,” Foisy said. “If they come back with some innovative solutions that we think can save us money in the long term, then there might be something for us to consider.”
The university will hear back from the vendors on Jan. 22. Selection committee members will then invite selected vendors to come back and present to their committee and the campus community, which includes interested employees and campus community members. If the committee finds a vendor that they wish to pursue, a recommendation will be made to Foisy and then he will submit a final recommendation to Green by April.
Voluntary separation incentives
A potential solution to save the university $14.5 million is the voluntarily separation plans which were sent to employees last semester, to resign from UI after this year. Inquiry about the plan doesn’t require those employees to go through with it, but UI will provide them an offer
At that point, they have 45 days to decide if they will take the offer or decline. If they take longer than the 45 days to decide, the offer lapses.
The two incentives offered to staff were the Voluntary Separation Incentive Program (VSIP), available to employees who have at least 10 years of consecutive service without an already-approved resignation or retirement announcement and the Optional Retirement Incentive Program (ORIP). The employee must have worked at least 20 consecutive years for the university and do not have an approved retirement plan.
Between VSIP and ORIP 200 employees responded by Dec.13, 109 expressed interest in VSIP and 91 for ORIP.
According to a memo sent out by Green, the university doesn’t expect all 200 employees to leave, which means the $14.5 million savings is unlikely. Another negative aspect of separation incentive’s is vacated positions that will have to be refilled. The supervisors will have lost all the knowledge and expertise the former employee obtained and will have less money to rehire a new one, Foisy said.
“There will be some cases where this is not advantageous to the university,” Foisy said.
John Webb can be reached at [email protected]