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The University of New Orleans will furlough hundreds of employees this semester in officials' latest move to close the school's $10 million budget gap, partly brought on by two decades of shrinking enrollment.
Furloughs will be tiered, officials said. That means the amount of furlough days will depend on how much money a person makes, starting at a half day every two weeks for salaries between $30,000 and $40,000.
UNO President Kathy Johnson told the school's governing board that the decision was "incredibly difficult."
"In fact, it is gut-wrenching," she said. "But it's a step that I feel I must take in order to ensure that my university is able to continue serving the state of Louisiana for generations to come."
The University of Louisiana's System of Board Supervisors unanimously approved Johnson's plan at its meeting on Thursday.
Johnson, who has been in her position for a little over a year, has taken other steps to cut costs, including taking a pay cut herself.
Other actions included closing buildings, eliminating empty positions, consolidating the school's five colleges into two, and laying off some administrators. There's a hiring freeze and a spending freeze, too.
Still, the university's new head of finance said it won't be enough to make it to the end of this semester.
"We've talked about layoffs," said Edwin Litolff at Thursday's board meeting. "Part of the challenge we have is we've already started the spring semester, so there's not much we can do from a faculty standpoint."
In an email to employees, Johnson said she anticipates "layoffs in the near future."
"It is painful for us to acknowledge the impact these decisions will have on our valued employees, and I am deeply aware of the hardship this will cause," she said.
Who's getting furloughed?
The furloughs will impact roughly 375 of the university's 575 full-time on-campus employees.
The number of days staff must take unpaid depends on their salary. On the highest end, the university will furlough employees who make more than $100,000 a year at least three days every two weeks.
All full-time teaching faculty are exempt, as well as those with tenure who aren't in administrative roles, are on an H1B visa, or are fully grant-funded, as well as staff with athletic contracts and part-time and contract employees.
In the red
Johnson said the school had a $15 million deficit over the summer. The first round of cost-cutting brought it down to $10 million.
Furloughs should save the school another $1.7 million, Litolff said on Thursday. That and other recent cuts could close the remaining gap by about half.
Officials have said low enrollment and rising costs are the big reason the school is in such a deep hole.
UNO enrolls far fewer students than it did before Hurricane Katrina. More than 17,000 students were on campus before the storm, compared to around 6,600 last fall.
But Lifolff, who came to UNO from Grambling State in November, said it's more than that.
"It's not just enrollment, but it's students paying their fees."
Or rather, not paying their fees.
Litolff said because of low enrollment, UNO hasn't been holding students accountable for their bills because they didn't want to drive them away. It's created a "culture" of students not paying, he said.
"We've got to draw the line," he added. "If you don't pay, you can't eat in the cafeteria. You can't get your books. You can't stay in school and get grades at the end of the year."
To students' credit, Litolff said the school has issues with awarding financial aid, and account balances aren't always accurate.
The school is blocking any student who owes more than $1,000 from scheduling classes this semester until they get on a payment plan or clear their balance. Litolff said that the amount of money they can bring in will determine the number of layoffs needed to make it to the end of the semester.
"You've gotta pay, or we're not gonna make it," he said. "We're doing things to change, but it's not enough, and it's not fast enough."
When asked by the board how much money students owe, Litolff said he didn't have an exact figure but that it's "millions and millions."
