About 400 UF faculty and staff could lose their jobs next year if UF absorbs a 10 percent budget cut from the state, according to the university-wide budget proposal released Thursday.
About 750 positions could be eliminated, including layoffs, retirements and cuts to vacant jobs.
Last year, when UF was faced with a cut of about $47 million, it proposed the elimination of about 430 positions, with 20 faculty and 118 staff layoffs. Eight faculty and 66 staff were eventually laid off because some employees were reassigned, others retired and additional funding was found for other positions.
A total of about $108 million in cuts are being considered for next year. That includes about $73 million in cuts proposed by colleges and administrative units as well as $35 million in previously unannounced possibilities, such as switching to a four-day week over the summer and slashing employee benefits.
Machen announced the proposed cuts to the Faculty Senate on Thursday afternoon. All of the proposals are posted online at budget.president.ufl.edu.
The size of the actual cut UF will endure won't be determined until the state Legislature decides on a budget, which should happen by May 1, when the regular session ends. But it could take longer if lawmakers can't agree on a budget. UF plans to submit its final proposal to the Board of Trustees in mid-to-late May.
As it stands, UF would see its budget reduced by about $90 million next year under the budget being considered by the Florida House of Representatives and about $30 million under the budget passed Thursday by the state Senate, according to UF President Bernie Machen.
Machen said it's likely the size of UF's cut will fall somewhere in between those two figures.
"If you split the difference, that puts us at $50 (million) to $75 million, which is where we thought we'd be," Machen said.
In January, Machen asked all colleges and administrative units to propose 10 percent budget cuts in anticipation of a $72 million to $75 million hit.
Machen said UF is slated to receive about $41 million from the federal stimulus package next year and another $41 million in 2011-2012. Because there is no guarantee the money will be available after that, Machen said he will not use the money to fill the budget gap.
"We can't count on this stimulus money as permanent money," he told the Senate on Thursday.
Instead, the money will be used for transitional purposes. For instance, faculty cannot be laid off immediately-they must be given notice periods that are up to a year in some cases. Stimulus money would be used to continue paying their salaries before the layoffs take effect, Machen said.
In addition to college and administrative proposals, Machen is considering other options that would limit the impact to academic programs but reduce employee benefits and result in 111 layoffs across campus.
The layoffs are included in a proposal to consolidate UF's communications team. Currently, about 186 employees work in various communications departments in colleges and other units. The proposal would slash that number to 75 and concentrate them into four or five offices, saving about $6 million. However, about $1 million would be needed in the first year to pull it off.
In other university-wide proposals, UF would consider cutting the summer week to four days, which would save about $65,000 in utilities.
Machen said the move is probably not worth the sacrifice. "You got to look at the gain for the pain," he said.
Another proposal would reduce the amount faculty are paid over the summer by creating a standard summer pay rate for all faculty, instead of paying them a percentage of their annual salary for teaching summer classes. Machen said most universities pay their summer faculty a standard rate. The change could save $3 million.
UF will also consider tweaks to its vacation and sick-leave policies.
Under one proposal, the amount of unused vacation time employees could cash in on when they leave UF would be capped at 240 hours. UF could also stop allowing employees to collect money for unused sick leave and unused December vacation time.
Under another proposal, employees 70 years or older would be offered a year's worth of salary in exchange for retiring, paid for by stimulus money.
Machen said he favors these types of cuts to ones that would impact academic programs, but he said he wants to know how students and employees feel about the idea.
"I lean towards administrative cuts, but I think we gotta have dialogue about that," he said.
As for whether he would favor undergraduate or graduate programs when making cuts, Machen said it depends on the program.
Although UF's Board of Trustees recently stated its desire to shift the university's mission more toward graduate education and research, it doesn't mean UF will come down harder on undergraduate programs, he said.
"The uniqueness of UF is in our graduate and research mission," he said. "That's what separates us from all the other universities in the state, and we need to keep that in mind, but that doesn't mean we would only cut undergrad."
Comparing UF's budget process to that of The Florida State University, Machen said he thinks UF has been much more open.
On Monday, when FSU announced its budget proposal, which includes the elimination of 21 academic programs and 350 faculty layoffs, Machen said most FSU faculty found out about it when they read it in the paper.
"They'd never heard anything," Machen said. "We've had them (the proposals) out in most colleges for several weeks," he said.
Another difference, he said, is FSU's athletic program will be unscathed by cuts, whereas UF has asked the University Athletic Association to also make a 10 percent cut, even though it is not funded by state money.
The money the UAA would cut, $6 million, would be donated to UF, Machen said.
Also announced at Thursday's Senate meeting were plans to possibly move spring break up a week and a recommendation from a Senate committee to establish a travel holiday on the Wednesday before Thanksgiving.
Both recommendations still need to be voted on by the full Senate. The spring-break change would take effect in the 2011-2012 school year, and the travel holiday would start the year after that.
