9.16.2008

USM Imposes Hiring Freezes

In response the the impending budget cuts, the USM has imposed a hiring freeze across all USM institutions as per a memo sent to all state institutions Thursday afternoon.

How are these measures to combat the declining USM budget going to affect designated growth institutions like Towson University who plans to increase the next few years of freshman classes by 700 students. Can schools that are on track with a growth plan, increasing the student body an building new facilities survive these freezes if we cannot hire staff and faculty to teach more classes?

Read Article Here
Posted by at
Labels: , , , ,

2 comments:

Josh Michael said...

Rachel--Thanks for posting this. The impending budget poses many serious issues for higher education. The Governor is being forced to consider FY09 budget cuts (this year) because of the recent drastic revenue shortfalls predicted by the Board of Estimates. Accordingly, Chancellor Kirwan has taken proactive steps to lead the system to prepare for any possible budget cuts that we could face as the Governor considers how to mitigate the budget revenue shortfalls. Things could be worse; hopefully, the budget planning will carry the system through any budget cuts that could possibly come our way.

This situation underscores the importance of the passage of the slots referendum come November. Without the slots revenue, we will be in an even worse fiscal situation come Fiscal Year 2010 and beyond.

On a related note, I just returned from the Board of Regents Retreat held today and yesterday. I will be posting on this soon.

September 16, 2008 at 2:12 PM
L said...

I understand why the freeze was put in place and departments have been told to start cutting back now so it hurts less later, but that still doesn't mean that the situation doesn't pose serious problems for growth.

Towson in particular (though I'm sure this applies to more than just us) is a school that is being mandated to grow - whether we or the community around us wants us to or not. That's all fine and dandy, but at the end of the day if you have overflowing classrooms and residence halls and half-finished construction projects, there is going to be a major problem not only for students and their families, but for the USM's public relations within the communities that put up with us.

We've seen how unfunded mandates can royally screw over an education system (example: NCLB), and the USM can't afford to do that to higher education.

September 16, 2008 at 9:43 PM

Post a Comment

Subscribe to: Post Comments (Atom)