November 14, 2008

The College and the economy: the belt-tightening begins

President Marx sent another update on Amherst’s response to the current economic crisis to the campus today, in which he details some of the steps the College will take “so that the College can weather the economic downturn without compromising the quality of our student body and the education we provide.” Marx characterizes the College’s situation as “significantly less well off than we were just a few months ago.”

This latest email to the campus community isn’t yet available on the College website, but we expect it will be soon. Significant points include:

• Non-academic departments (e.g. physical plant, alumni and parent programs, etc.) have been asked to prepare plans for the spring semester (and beyond) with options for both 5% and 10% reductions in total department budget.
• “Academic departments, … will be asked to collaborate to find ways in which they may be able to reduce their collective budgets similarly.”

The most interesting point was on hiring. While reiterating that the College is “not planning layoffs, a hiring freeze for faculty or staff, or the reduction of financial aid,” Marx outlined a hiring policy which sounds remarkably like what some institutions would call a “hiring freeze.” Specifically, the College will not be filling ten of twelve new staff positions which had previously been approved; will be making “fewer offers” for visiting faculty; and is “consulting” about the “pace” of filling some tenure-track faculty positions. Marx mentions later,

“…when positions become open because of retirements or other departures from the College, we should think even more carefully before deciding whether or not they should be filled immediately, deferred, or perhaps reconfigured.”

“Hiring freeze” is a slippery phrase which can mean whatever managers want it to mean. This policy doesn’t subject the College to the across-the-board arbitrariness and strictness of a true hiring freeze, but it does walk like a duck and quack like a duck, so it’s hard not to call it a duck.

While these steps sound like tough medicine for a College which had previously had an endowment well over $1B, Marx reminds his readers that “Amherst is in a stronger financial position than most of our peers,” and the truth may be seen merely by looking across town, where UMass is bracing to absorb $11 million in budget cuts from the state—and may face more soon.

Parker Morse '96 | November 14, 2008 01:20 PM | Campus

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