Published Thursday, June 25, 2009 6:05 AM
A&M tackles personnel issues
By VIMAL PATEL
vimal.patel@theeagle.com
Interim A&M President R. Bowen Loftin tells professors, administrators and others Wednesday how he plans to cut spending at A&M.
Professor Angie Hill, former speaker of the Faculty Senate, poses a question to Interim A&M President R. Bowen Loftin, who told professors, administrators and others Wednesday how he plans to cut spending at the university.
About $800,000 will be sliced out of the Texas A&M University president's office budget, Interim President R. Bowen Loftin announced Wednesday.
"I will never ask of you what I won't ask from me," Loftin told a few hundred members of the campus community in Rudder Theatre for a public forum. "We're all in this together."
The meeting came amid anxiety among Texas A&M faculty, staff and administrators about cost-cutting plans. On the day former A&M President Elsa Murano resigned last week, the Board of Regents approved a plan that would merge some services of Texas A&M and the 11-university system that governs it.
The chief of the system, Chancellor Mike McKinney, set a goal of reducing administrative costs by $20 million. Loftin said he had the authority from his bosses to attain the goal however he saw fit.
The 59-year-old said he was abolishing the position that was held by H. Russell Cross, who resigned last week. Cross served as Murano's chief of staff and executive vice president for operations. His salary in 2008 was $310,000. His most recent salary wasn't immediately available.
Loftin also announced the elimination of the positions of vice president for university advancement -- Chad Wootton, who made $198,000 in 2008 -- and executive personal assistant to the president -- Mary Pletzer, whose salary was not immediately available Wednesday evening.
Several A&M faculty members and officials have questioned the urgency of the cost-cutting endeavor, given that Texas A&M University fared well in the legislative session that ended this month and that Texas is faring better in the recession than the rest of the country.
Texas A&M received $22 million more from the Legislature through the Competitive Knowledge Fund and formula funding than it did last year. The university will receive an additional $9 million in tuition with the 4 percent increase starting in the fall.
"We're ... better off financially," said Robert Bednarz, speaker of the Faculty Senate, during the forum. "I wonder if we're missing an opportunity by cutting instead of expanding."
Loftin, however, said some of the gains would be offset by losses, including an $8.6 million reduction in the Available University Fund and $7.8 million in investment earnings, in addition to $11 million set aside for implementing the university's ambitious Academic Master Plan. He said future tuition revenue and state allocations were uncertain.
"I want to give you some stability," he said. "We do that by being able to pay our costs and provide stable money over many years for these key programs we treasure and future ones we want to add.
"Our goal is not slash and burn. Our goal is to deal with cost reductions that do not in any way impede the mission of the institution," he said.
Loftin this week sent out a memo to his vice presidents, informing them that the goal of saving $20 million could not be achieved simply by sharing services, that administrative budgets would have to be cut.
Comments
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10 comment(s) found!
Posted by:
Dan L. On:
Friday, June 26, 2009 7:49 AM
Comment Title:
hey, wl, just because you're a townie you are not entitled to make foolish statements about things that you obviously know nothing about. to say that these folks simply drew a paycheck is absurd. i know Chad Wootton personally and i dare you to find a more consumate professional that dedicated themselves around the clock to doing their job. i, for one, am an Aggie ('98) who is greatly dissapointed in my alma mater and will no longer be supporting it through financial donations.
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Posted by:
WL On:
Thursday, June 25, 2009 11:47 PM
Comment Title:
The positions Loftin abolished are boggus. These people are making rediculous amounts of money doing nothing but drawing a check. The satement made "I wondering if we're missing an opportunity by cutting instead of expanding" is absurd. If you cut wasteful salaries then you could better use that money for expansion instead of having to aquire more money on top of wasteful spending. Get a grip people. Empires fall, some rebuild and some never are as they once were. Either you are behind the school or you aren't. I believe the words to the song are "true to each other as AGGIES can be" need to be imparted to all and help the university pull through difficult times. And by the way, I didn't get a chance to go A&M, wish I could have, so I am not an Aggie by graduation; but a lifelong resident that has seen the school make huge changes through the years and weather many storms.
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Posted by:
E. Lisako J. McKyer On:
Thursday, June 25, 2009 8:21 PM
Comment Title: Unfair
First - it is grossly unfair to evaluate Dr. Lofton's capabilities based on his choice of attire. For the sake of Texas A&M University, I hope he is successful in keeping the ship afloat and preventing a mass exodus of quality faculty. Second - what makes people think that faculty are not part of the "real world?" If our heads were truly in the clouds and not based in reality, then the education you received from us would be worthless right? We have bills to pay, including TENS of THOUSANDS more in student loans than most people, children to raise, taxes to pay, credit card interest rates to struggle with, and cars to keep running. We bank where you bank, shop where you shop (my favorites - Walmart and Target). Many of us conduct research in areas that have direct impact on quality of life! Want less expensive but more nutrition veggies? How about exercise routines that take little time but are highly effective? What about the quality of snacks fed to your children? How commerce affects our mortgage rates? ALL of these areas are studied by us, and have impact on every day lives...including our own. So yes, I live in the real world, and I am probably your next door neighbor or he person next to you in church. I don't live in a vacume to please don't presume that I do.
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Posted by:
On:
Thursday, June 25, 2009 6:03 PM
Comment Title: Loftin
I am not sure if he is trying to look smart but Loftin is the goofyist looking president A&M has every had, and now he opens his mouth to prove. He actually thinks he is in charge of something!!
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Posted by:
On:
Thursday, June 25, 2009 4:35 PM
Comment Title:
I don't understand why everyone is so upset. Most corporations are cutting back due to the economy. It seems they have cut over half a million out of the adminstrative budget. This is what normal organizations due in hard times. Maybe if administrators and faculty understood the real world they would do a better job of preparing students for the harsh realities of life after college.
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Posted by:
Champ On:
Thursday, June 25, 2009 1:02 PM
Comment Title: Seriously People
Something don't look good at all. What the heck is happening to A&M and what will it become with these people who are running it?? Students stand up and go beyond aggie beliefs to save your University before you have no say so on anything. Do it now!
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Posted by:
On:
Thursday, June 25, 2009 9:54 AM
Comment Title:
One of the things corporations do to cut costs is to reduce the salaries of their executives. With a fair amount of A&M employees making above $150K, why is there talk of reducing the amount of merit paid by the University for those making under $175K, but no talk of reducing salaries above $175K? With these so called economic dire straits that A&M is facing, I would think all possibilities would be on the table for reducing costs. So far the only options I've heard are getting rid of the president's position(a mere pittance in the overall costs), consolidating services (staff cuts?), and reducing the amount of merit for those who really need it. All of these suggestions for fixes leaves the A&M "executives" completely unscathed.
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Posted by:
it's howdy doody time..... On:
Thursday, June 25, 2009 9:44 AM
Comment Title:
FOR SALE-CHEAP: one (1) class of '02 Texas A&M ring. once the symbol of pride and excellence in academia, the aggie ring is now a failing loop of corporate greed and professional unprofessionalism. - $400 obo.
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Posted by:
On:
Thursday, June 25, 2009 7:46 AM
Comment Title:
The positions Loftin eliminated are really sham. Those were two people that Murano created when she became president (she did have a habit of creating more high level admin positions, even as Dean). Naturally Cross resigned after Murano did, though he's just stepping back down into the College of Agriculture. A slight salary savings in the long run maybe, but not much. It's just transferred from the President's office to the College of Agriculture now. Only thing Loftin has done was return the President's office personnel back to what it was under Gates. I still maintain the people that will be hurt are the rank and file staff, who can least afford lack of merit raises to offset the rising cost of living. Let's see all the Deans, VP's, Chancellors, Vice Chancellors, etc. take a real paycut if they're serious about cutting the budget. Personally, I'm wondering what fiasco they are trying to fund with these cuts. Someone somewhere in the upper levels has a pet project they want to pay for and this is obviously the only way to get the funds for it.
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Posted by:
On:
Thursday, June 25, 2009 7:17 AM
Comment Title: Merit Raises
Will system employees like Dr. McKinney get merit raises for their performance over the past year?
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