Roughly 30 Texas A&M staff members were laid off this week, including seven in the College of Geosciences, and a "handful" -- but fewer than 10, officials said -- in human resources.
"We anticipate that these kinds of personnel decisions on an isolated basis will be ongoing," said Jason Cook, a university spokesman. "Each college is handling it differently because of their own budget situation and own timing."
University-wide plans released in July called for the elimination of 93 faculty and 117 staff positions -- along with 100 vacant faculty and 175 vacant staff positions -- to help meet a "worst-case" state reduction of $39 million and an internal $21 million reallocation plan to bolster a centrally administered pool to fund strategic priorities.
The cuts are for the next biennium, the two-year period that begins September 2011.
Tuesday was a key date for non-tenured faculty members. It was the last day before the new fiscal year began, and a university rule requires a year notice to some lecturers that their contracts won't be renewed. To give them a chance to plan ahead, university officials have said, all faculty who would be let go received that notice.
The date had no such significance for staff members, who the university isn't required to give any notice to. But for several reasons, including college leaders not wanting to have a cloud hanging over the remaining faculty for a year and wanting to complete the faculty and staff cuts in one swoop, some decided they would lay off staff members Tuesday.
Some colleges, like the College of Science and the College of Architecture, have not laid off any staff in this reduction process.
"We're still waiting for the results of the voluntary separation program, so we haven't had any decision yet," said Architecture Dean Jorge Vanegas.
He referred to the buyout program for eligible tenured faculty members that seeks to free up funds that could provide flexibility in reduction plans. The program -- which has an application period until Sept. 24 -- offers a year or two year's pay up-front and saves on recurring salary payments. Interim Provost Karan Watson has said deans will be allowed to alter their reduction plans after the success of the program is known.
The College of Geosciences was forced to cut deeper among staff because its disproportionate number of graduate students means it has more tenured faculty, who are protected from the cuts. Roughly a third of the college's 1,043 students are graduate students, whereas about a fifth are university-wide, Dean Kate Miller said.
She also said that enough eligible faculty wouldn't have taken the buyout for the college to go without a staff reduction. "We did a pretty careful analysis of who we thought was likely to take the voluntary separation program," Miller said.
Some, like Bob Bednarz, a geography professor whose department will now have two people at its office instead of three, said that staff reductions also impact the mission of the faculty.
"It just shifts more of the burden onto the faculty, and they will accept that burden, but it means they will be doing less of other things like teaching, research and publication," Bednarz said.
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