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UNC system eliminates 900 jobs

About 900 administrative jobs are being eliminated as the UNC system cuts non-academic costs, said UNC-system President Erskine Bowles on Monday, following a meeting with university chancellors.

Seventy-five to 85 percent of the cuts to the system’s $2.7 billion budget will be in administrative costs and almost all of that is in jobs.

The system has to cut more than $127 million from what it received last year for continuing operations, which includes personnel costs.

Money previously spent on administration will be redirected to the universities’ academic cores — areas related to classroom instruction, academic support, student services and research.

Many people who are losing their jobs have already been told, he said.

“Most of our costs are people,” Bowles said. “We’ve been all over this. This is not something that’s new.”

Some of those jobs might have already been eliminated by campuses in anticipation of budget cuts issued by the N.C. General Assembly in August, said Joni Worthington, UNC-system vice president for communications.

The announcement comes after an Aug. 17 article in The (Raleigh) News & Observer that pointed out that administrative costs have been escalating at a significantly higher rate than faculty and staff costs.

In reaction to the article, Bowles sent a strongly worded letter to all the UNC-system chancellors rebuking them for not operating more efficiently.

“We have discussed the need to pare administrative costs REPEATEDLY at our chancellors’ meetings, and we have made it crystal clear that any further delay in reducing senior and middle management positions would jeopardize our credibility and standing with the General Assembly and the taxpayers of North Carolina,” Bowles stated in the letter (emphasis his).

The N&O article found that administrative growth, at 28 percent during the past five years, significantly outpaced faculty and teaching positions, at 24 percent, and student enrollment, at 14 percent.

On Monday, Bowles told reporters that efficiency has been a top priority since he took office in 2006. He said he cut $32 million in administrative costs his first year with the system and $48 million his second year.

“(The N&O) pointed out that there’s more to do,” Bowles said.

“In some cases we failed — and not for lack of effort. … The buck stops here. This is my fault.”

However, despite criticizing chancellors in the letter for not following his directive to pare administrative costs, he is still allowing chancellors to determine where the cuts need to be made on their individual campuses.

“The president has confidence in his chancellors,” said N.C. Central University Chancellor Charlie Nelms on Monday, following the meeting.

“We will rise to the occasion.”


Contact the State & National Editor at stntdesk@unc.edu.

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