7:44 p.m.
Dear COEHD Colleagues,
On April 17 and April 31, President Eighmy sent a message to the UTSA community addressing
the fiscal issues that UTSA would be facing as a result of the growing national economic
crisis caused by COVID 19. He indicated that an institutional plan will be developed in
response to the economic challenges we face moving forward. I am writing to give you a
college view of how these reductions will be met in COEHD.
Our college-wide plan for meeting the reduction targets are due mid-May, to be vetted and
approved by campus leadership. As you saw in Dr. Eighmy's message, UTSA is taking an
'all funds approach', which means that all units at the university will be
contributing to the overall reduction in expenditures. The College of Education and Human
Development is responsible for reducing our expenditures by 9 %, with an additional 5 %,
if required, for a 14 % total reduction. This will be accomplished through an 'all
funds approach' as well. These reductions will be made to college funds that are not
inclusive of currently filled T/TT positions (however, while not a part of the overall
reduction plan, they are factored into the college expense total), so the effective
percentage, based on the funds under consideration are greater than an overall 9%-14%
reduction since only certain finding sources are able to be reduced. Non-academic units
within the college are responsible for a 10% and additional 5% reduction if needed, for
an overall reduction of 15% .
UTSA will continue to make progress toward the three destinations: Student Success,
Research, and Strategic Growth & Innovative Excellence. These are the core initiatives
that will be prioritized as we move forward as a college. Additionally, as a college we
prioritize community engagement as that is central to our mission.
I have asked Department Chairs, Associate Deans, and Directors to develop plans that
address this reduction in each of those units; the plans will then be considered from the
perspective of the overall college targets. Additionally, I have asked unit leaders to
submit a set of guiding principles and core values that will be compiled into a
college-wide resource for addressing the reductions and for making financial and spending
decisions moving forward. Department and unit plans are due to the college on May 7. We
will continue to work through the process , seek additional input and share broadly what
the options are and how we can best meet the required reductions. Ultimately, we will
arrive at a college-wide plan that takes into consideration all proposals submitted by
the units and one that reaches the dollar-amount that we are being asked to reduce. These
plans will be reviewed by university leadership and given feedback, with an additional
opportunity to revise where necessary. Final plans will be submitted to the university on
May 26. As you can see, this is a very tight turn-around timeframe.
While plans are currently in development and we are not sure what the ultimate result will
be or where reductions will take place, we will first make reductions across the board to
M & O and other operating expenses where possible, ensuring that basic services
continue. We will also, as per the President's directive, evaluate all vacant
positions and eliminate those that we can while still providing core services. Once these
areas of reduction have been accomplished, we will analyze the gap between cost-savings
realized through M&O and vacant positions, and the required 9% + 5%/10% + 5 % overall
reduction, and seek additional measures to reach the target we were given by President
Eighmy, Provost Espy, and VPBA Mendez. As President Eighmy pointed out in his message, an
institutional and college priority is "Retaining jobs, maintaining current
salaries/pay rates and preserving employee benefits to the extent possible."
However, as President Eighmy points out, "Some limited furloughs and
layoffs/reductions-in-force may need to be an element of these conversations,"
This reduction is required to be on permanent funds and will address FY 21 and beyond.
In addition to the forward planning, there were measures taken that included a sweep of
certain college/department funds. The account balances that were pulled back to central
reserves (see item 7 below) were done so to address the immediate cost management efforts
that President Eighmy pointed out in the message. To this end, we are and will continue
following guidelines sent to Deans on 4/20/2020 related to spending and seek additional
cost-saving measures:
1. Limit all purchases to those that are critical and essential to operations. All
purchases must be approved.
2. Procard limits reduced to $1 (except for those tied to externally sponsored
projects). Approved expenses must go through Rowdy exchange.
3. Computer refresh suspended.
4. All existing contracts will be reviewed and evaluated against the core service needs
and mission (Liliana has already reached out to departments for a listing of contracts
such as Copier leasing, water, coffee, etc.).
5. Entertainment expenses are suspended.
6. All university domestic and international travel is not permitted unless it is
deemed mission critical and approved by leadership.
7. The following accounts' unencumbered balances were swept and moved to
institutional reserves to "maintain workforce and operations for the remainder of the
fiscal year":
* 58% E & G
* 58% Designated Tuition
* 100% Official Occasions
Each unit lead was asked to submit a spread sheet with the accounts that were swept and
the outstanding (unencumbered) obligations that were planned for those funds. I will
review these obligations and work with leadership to see if local remaining funding can
cover mission critical expenses, and request assistance beyond our ability to locally fund
these critical initiatives. Based on the current fiscal realities, we will not be able to
fund all requests. The current priorities are student support and salary obligations. For
the remaining requests for funding of planned initiatives that we are not able to meet,
please work with your unit lead to brainstorm creative solutions - for example, moving
certain things to a paperless environment (such as the COEHD annual publication- we will
not pay for this to be printed and will move it to a completely online format to reduce
/eliminate expenses).
As we develop plans, we will communicate these to the COEHD community. College leadership
(Associate Deans, Department Chairs, affected Directors and the Director of Fiscal
Services) met with President Eighmy, Provost Espy, and VPBA Mendez earlier today ( Friday,
May 1 )for discussion and the ability to address questions. I will schedule a faculty
town hall after next week when we have preliminary plans.
I understand that these are uncertain times. COEHD leadership is working together to
ensure that our college remains successful and emerges in a strong position.
Best,
Margo
Margo DelliCarpini, Ph.D.
Vice Provost for Strategic Educational Partnerships and Dean of the College of Education
and Human Development
President's Distinguished Professor
The University of Texas at San Antonio
One UTSA Circle
San Antonio, TX 78249
T: 210.458.4370
F: 210.458.4487