Dedicated to Preserving the Academic and Operational Autonomy of USF's Women's Studies Department

Women's Studies Department Fall Newsletter

2008-09-17T16:41:00.002-04:00

At least once a day, a student finds her or his way to the Department of Women’s Studies wondering if it is possible to complete a minor or a major, or to begin graduate study; wondering if Women’s Studies is in fact, still here.

Well, we are!

After an amazing whirlwind of change and an unprecedented degree of uncertainty, the Department “survives” as an academic space to produce Women’s Studies scholarship, teaching and engagement separate from and in relation to other disciplines throughout the University.

What has changed in Women’s Studies at USF?

* We a have nationally-known group of scholars in our Visiting Professors in the areas of feminist pedagogy, feminist economics, and women’s health research.

* We have established a chapter of Iota, Iota, Iota (aka, Triota), the National Women’s Studies Honor Society.

*We have a new office manager, Sheela Fernandez. Sheela brings to Women’s Studies over 18 years of administrative office experience. Having lived in India, Malaysia, Singapore and now the U.S., she has an intricate knowledge of diverse cultures. Please stop by our Department and meet this fascinating professional.

*Our former office manager, Irina Raimez-Fernandez, has been assigned to another unit. All of us in Women’s Studies over the years have been so privileged to work with her. Her competence and charisma are legendary. Irina has agreed to join the Women’s Studies Department Advisory Board. We are indeed lucky, as the Department can continue to benefit from her wisdom and remarkable leadership talents.

*Some of the most celebrated feminist and Women’s Studies scholars from universities across the nation have joined forces with the Department at USF to offer cutting edge scholarship in critical feminist pedagogy and research this academic year at USF.

They are: bell hooks, Jennifer Baumgardner, AnaLouise Keating, Jacqui Alexander, Beverly Guy-Sheftall, Chandra Mohanty, Phyllis Chesler, Mark Anthony Neal, Amit Rai, Layli Phillips, Aimee Carrillo Rowe, Christine (Cricket) Keating, Aaronette White, and Barbara Scott Winkler

Join us on Nov. 17 at 3PM in the TECO room for a presentation by Jennifer Baumgardner, in the first of our series.

*We have partnered with the American Association of University Women (Florida), the Sarasota/Manatee--National Organization for Women and the Sarasota Commission on the Status of Women to commemorate the 10th Anniversary of the “Report on Gender Disparities in Salaries of Full Professors at the University of South Florida in 1998: Evidence, Consequences, and Recommendations for Solutions” on Nov. 3, 2008 at 3PM presented by Professor Pam Hallock Muller.

So, what is Women’s Studies anyway?

What is it that a discrete discipline in a Department of Women’s Studies creates that is distinct from feminist or gendered knowledge production in older and more familiar disciplines in the Humanities and Social Sciences?

Many of you may remember the pivotal tasks of the creation of community, the giving voice, and the empowerment of women as the cornerstone of Women’s Studies.

Since that time, Women’s Studies has developed into a discrete discipline that has its own herstory/history, “bodies of knowledge, sets of theories, associated pedagogies, academic projects and curriculum challenges and strategies.”

Faculty and students in the Department of Women’s Studies produce, evaluate, perform, and engage Women’s Studies’ content and processes.

Saving Women’s Studies: Part of the Tradition of the Struggle for Women’s Rights

It is not every generation of Women’s Studies’ students that can participate so fully and so successfully in the long struggle for women’s rights in the places where they work and study.

From a woman’s right to vote, to a woman’s right to attain an education; from a woman’s right to keep her own earnings rather than turning these over to her husband, to a women’s right to equal pay; from a women’s right embrace motherhood, to a women’s right to choose---last Spring, our students fought for a woman’s right to think, differently and a scholar’s right to produce knowledge that is in a discrete discipline, knowledge that can only be called “Women’s Studies.”

It was Eleanor Roosevelt who said that “the future belongs to those who believe in the beauty of their dreams.” Our students insisted on carrying the dream of equality and fairness for all of us last Spring when it was unpopular and when it was not safe. They exhibited tremendous civic courage. And in so doing, they secured a future for the next generation of Women’s Studies faculty and students at USF.

For more information, please see our newsletter: https://frontend.cas.usf.edu/exchweb/bin/redir.asp?URL=http://www.scribd.com/doc/6083421/1fall-Newsletter-Paper-Version

History of Resource Allocation Leading to A Departmnent in Peril

2008-08-19T10:27:00.004-04:00

Click on the link to see an overview of how the Department of Women's Studies was systematically deprived of resources over time....

History of resource depletion Women’s Studies at USF - Upload a Document to Scribd

2008-07-16T13:47:00.000-04:00

GRIEVANCES FILED OVER ACADEMIC-AFFAIRS REORGANIZATION

2008-07-16T12:20:00.002-04:00

United Faculty of Florida -- USF ChapterBiweekly Newsletter EXTRAJuly 15, 2008

The United Faculty of Florida is representing several faculty members who filed individual grievances July 11 in response to the reorganization of Academic Affairs.

The grievants are from the colleges of Arts and Sciences and Business Administration.

On June 12, the provost announced that he was moving entire units between colleges and creating a new college out of FMHI and several departments from Arts and Sciences.

The grievances assert that the reorganization occurred without either notice to the grievants or an opportunity for the grievants to provide input.

The grievances assert that a unilateral reorganization of colleges in this manner violates Section 5.4 of the Collective Bargaining Agreement (on-line at http://w3.usf.edu/~uff/ratification/CBA0407.pdf), which reads: "On the part of the Administration, Academic Responsibility implies a commitment actively to foster within the University a climate favorable to responsible exercise of freedom, by adherence to principles of shared governance, which require that in the development of academic policies and processes, the professional judgments of employees are of primary importance."

A resolution approved at a chapter meeting this spring opposed unilateral reorganizations that went beyond what was necessary for budget cuts, and the chapter notified both the administration and the Board of Trustees that reorganizations required more discussion and consultation and that the process of reorganization should be separated from the timeline for budget cuts.

A letter to the provost this spring from the majority of chairs in Arts and Sciences expressed parallel concerns and made a similar request for more measured deliberations about reorganization.

Instead of responding to the concerns of CAS chairs and the chapter, the provost announced reorganization as a fait accompli June 12, without giving the entire faculty in affected colleges an opportunity to provide input on either the specifics or the general shape of the reorganization.

"Only a minority of faculty in the affected colleges thinks that both the process and the results of reorganization were appropriate," chapter president Sherman Dorn said.

"At least a substantial plurality of faculty thinks that either the process or the results are inappropriate. "

At a great university, faculty are at the heart of crucial decisions about the future. An administrator who acts as if he or she believes in benevolent despotism only increases the cynicism and erodes the morale of the faculty.

In a time of severe budget cuts, the University of South Florida cannot afford either.

"While more UFF members in the affected colleges might want to participate, the collective bargaining agreement requires that grievances be filed within 30 days of a contractual violation. July 11 represented the "safe date" deadline after the reorganization's announcement on June 12, and grievances were filed though many who might want to join were out of town.

USF ISLAC Program being shut down

2008-07-14T22:29:00.004-04:00

USF is reducing the ISLAC to its minimum expression which is essentially shutting it down. Dr. Jorge Nef, Director and Dr. Cristina Maria Espinosa, Asst. Director have resigned. Click here to watch Univision report.

For more information about ISLAC click on the link below.
I S L A C Institute for the Study of Latin America and the Caribbean

USF Polytechnic to offer new degree program

2008-07-09T20:02:00.000-04:00

Wednesday, July 9, 2008 - 11:46 AM EDT
Tampa Bay Business Journal

University of South Florida Polytechnic will launch a new bachelor of general studies degree program in the fall. It is designed for working adults who have some college education but have been out of school for at least three years.

The new program will provide a quick route to a bachelor's degree and give students the ability to attend graduate school, a release said.

USF Polytechnic, based in Lakeland, initially will offer concentrations in business, information technology, aging studies and women's studies.

All contents of this site © American City Business Journals Inc. All rights reserved.

Twelve and counting

2008-07-07T13:26:00.001-04:00

By: Harrison Reed, Staff Writer
Posted: 7/7/08

USF may face an exodus of teaching talent after this year's budget cuts and departmental restructuring. The University has already lost 12 faculty members to other schools.

"I have 12 letters of resignation," said Senior Vice Provost Dwayne Smith. "Typically at this time we have about five to six."

Faculty members said that better salaries, research opportunities and academic outlook have attracted them to other schools. Most recently, Carolyn Eichner of the Department of Women's Studies and Kennan Ferguson, director of Interdisciplinary Social Studies, have declined USF's counteroffers and will accept positions at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee.

"We took a hard look at the present and future of the University of South Florida and decided we do not share its commitments and direction," Eichner and Ferguson stated in their resignation letter.

Their letter specifically cites the controversial absorption of the women's studies department into the College of Arts and Sciences as an example of the administration's commitments."

The current administration's reorganization efforts will almost certainly leave women's studies a department in name only, with neither a chair nor budgetary autonomy," they stated.

Despite the increase in resignations, Smith said that the administration will deal with each faculty member on a case-by-case basis rather than reassess its commitments.

USF will continue to counter the offers from other universities, but the state's stagnant economy makes Florida's professors easy targets for out-of-state universities, Smith said.

"If it's a matter of seeking more money and more resources, those are just in short supply right now," he said.While USF might come close to matching the salaries offered by other schools, research funds are scarcer at USF, he said.

"Often times what has been included with their offer from another institution would be some really nice start-up package that includes really nice infrastructure support," Smith said. "That's often what we can't meet."

Other schools are also facing financial difficulties, Eichner said, but they have managed to use their resources to strengthen their academic and research goals."(The University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee is) prioritizing increasing their research profile," she said.

"USF could probably come close to the salary (they offered), but not the research funding."USF will use temporary fill-ins to supplement the faculty ranks while they target potential new hires, Smith said.

Despite budget concerns, USF should still draw highly qualified professors."We will have some fairly high profile people coming in with this year's new cohort of faculty," he said. "We have gone out and recruited them aggressively."Smith said he remains optimistic that incoming faculty will sufficiently replace the numbers lost to resignations.

In years past, new hires from other universities have far exceeded the number of faculty members leaving USF and that it will probably be the case this year, he said.Other high-profile resignations from USF this year include Chief Financial Officer Carl Carlucci, robotics expert Robin Murphy, and John Skvoretz, dean of the College of Arts and Sciences.

© Copyright 2008 The Oracle

Tax cuts bankrupt college education

2008-07-07T08:48:00.000-04:00

Posted: 7/7/08"

I can't guarantee you that there won't be some increase in class size. There may be some lessening of the selection of courses students can take as we focus, and there may be some low enrolled programs we begin to phase out."

Those were the words of Terry Hickey, UCF provost and executive vice president, on the possible impact that the recently announced budget cuts may have.

There haven't been any announcements as to which programs will be eliminated and which will stay, but you can bet some of the more unusual majors may not make the cut. At the University of South Florida, the women's studies department and Institute for the Study of Latin America and the Caribbean have already seen the axe fall.

The students at USF held large protests outside the administration building trying to get answers about why those programs had to be cut altogether when they felt like money could have been diverted from much larger programs with larger budgets.Students at UCF may not get the chance to protest because according to Hickey, "a silent reduction in faculty and staff has been made to compensate for the loss."

This means that every professor who either retired or quit this year won't get replaced. Instead, the professors who did decide to stick it out will be faced with merging the open classes with their own or teaching additional classes.

Already there are 68 faculty and 141 staff positions that will remain vacant for at least another year. On top of that, there are about 100 additional faculty and staff positions that will be cut from the budget as well. Hickey said that departments have been doing an excellent job of "stretching themselves and sharing responsibility," but the only real responsibility here is on the shoulders of the Florida legislature.

Naturally we can't place all of the blame on the UCF administration because it is only doing what it believes is in the best interest in the future of university.

We would, however, like to see a better allocation of funds though, because there seem to be many areas that aren't taking much of the brunt from the budget cuts while the most important areas are getting cut down limb from limb.

No, the majority of the fault can be placed on the Florida government who has worked in direct opposition to the best interests of the State University System.

Obviously Florida is going through some economically turbulent times right now, especially in real estate, which is one of Florida's largest industries. Yet, tax cuts and tax breaks are not the way to fix our problems. Governor Charlie Crist pushed for the passage of Amendment 1 earlier this year which will cut $9.3 billion in taxes over the next five years.

The amendment passed with little opposition from homeowners. The tremendous opposition came from the people who foresaw the kinds of disasters the budget cuts could bring.

Teachers unions, firefighters and local government leaders were quick to point out that while you might save a few hundred dollars a year on property taxes, the public services that everyone enjoys will suffer significant cutbacks. Andy Ford, president of the Florida Education Association, said that major tax cuts expose the state's education system to significant revenue challenges, which are obviously being felt at UCF and other state schools. "Floridians are concerned about the economy, so I think a tax cut is important to them," Crist said. "I'm pleased for the people of Florida." Too bad Crist didn't think about how his tax cuts would affect students getting a public education.

The legislature is shortchanging the future of this state and the country by compounding the problems in the already lackluster Florida educational system.Before Amendment 1 passed, Crist promised to offset the tax cuts in his education budget.

From the current state of affairs we can only conclude that either he forgot about his promise or his budget was flawed from the beginning - most likely the latter will prove to be the most accurate.

For now, students in the State University System will have to face the likelihood that they won't graduate in four years and that their class sizes will only continue to grow. No one likes to pay taxes, but guess what - taxes pay for the things we take for granted.

Our university already has the highest student-to-faculty ratio in the nation - what other negative lists will we dominate once the budget cuts kick in? It's time to let the Florida legislature know that tax cuts are only temporary Band-Aids and they are not the way to solve our economic problems?

© Copyright 2008 Central Florida Future

The Women's Studies department at USF is losing professor Carolyn Eichner

2008-06-22T15:05:00.001-04:00

Dear Friends and Colleagues:

It is with a heavy heart that I announce the departure of Carolyn Eichner from USF. This is a terrible blow to Women’s Studies and to Women’s History at USF.

While I am saddened, I indeed understand. The circumstances of the last few years and especially the last few months have made the pursuing of feminist scholarship and feminist pedagogy untenable and reflect not simply anti-intellectualism, but a specific form called anti-intellectual feminist harassment*.

I thank Carolyn for her fearlessness and tireless advocacy on behalf of Women’s Studies. Because of her, the Department has had a voice while being strangled. That counts for much—oppression needs a witness.

I know that everyone will join with me to wish Carolyn and Kennan much success.

Kim Vaz

************************************************

June 19, 2008

Brain drain continues, two more profs leave USF

Another day, another departure (or two) from a state university. The Women's Studies department at USF is losing professor Carolyn Eichner, and the Interdisciplinary Social Sciences department is losing Kennan Ferguson, who submitted their resignations yesterday. (See the letter here here.)

USF tried to keep them with salary negotiations, but the professors say salary isn't as important to them as the value USF puts on "research and pedagogy."

They're leaving for the University of Wisconsin, where they feel their research and academic goals will get far more support. In contrast, the professors write, "the administration's claim of Women's Studies' centrality to the university appears to be merely semantics."

Source: Tambabay.com

*************************************

*“a serious threat to academic freedom, occurs when 1) any policy, action, statement and/or behaviour has the intent or the effect of discouraging or preventing women’s freedom of lawful action, freedom of thought, and freedom of expression; 2) or when any policy, action, statement, and/or behaviour creates an environment in which the appropriate application of feminist theories or methodologies to research, scholarship, and teaching is devalued, discouraged, or altogether thwarted; 3) or when any policy, action, statement, and/or behaviour creates an environment in which research, scholarship, and teaching pertaining to women, gender or gender inequities is devalued, discouraged, or altogether thwarted.” This definition focuses on consequences and not intention. See Annette Kolodny’s Failing the Future

USF realigns departments and faces further budget cuts

2008-06-13T20:44:00.008-04:00

06/13/08 Seán Kinane WMNF Evening News Friday

Click here to listen.

Florida’s universities received notice of further budget cuts this week – at the same time that the University of South Florida is announcing tuition increases, restructuring, and a dean’s resignation.

On Thursday USF announced a realignment of academic departments, colleges and schools. The university’s largest college was most affected. Under the restructuring, the College of Arts and Sciences will be divided into three schools: Behavioral and Social Sciences, Humanities, and Sciences. Harry Vanden is Professor of Government and International Affairs at USF.

“I think it comes as a surprise to a lot of people in the College of Arts and Sciences and elsewhere in the university. I believe people knew that there were various organizational plans afoot. I think it would be fair to say that most of the faculty feel they were not involved in the process of realignment and that many of them would prefer not to have the realignment as it is,” Vanden said.

As part of the realignment, two institutes and one department will be added to the revamped College of Arts and Sciences -- the economics department, the Institute on Black Life and the Institute for the Study of Latin America and the Caribbean, or ISLAC. The Women’s Studies and Africana Studies departments had been concerned about being dismantled or joined into larger school. They managed to maintain their departmental status. Kim Vaz, who is chair of the Women’s Studies Department, said she has concerns about the realignment.

During the spring semester, students led teach-ins and rallies to save the two departments, including a one that culminated in a 200-person march to the administration building in April for an hour-long meeting with Provost Ralph Wilcox. But two months later, Chair of the Africana Studies Department Deborah Plant said there was still “a lot of uncertainty,” even following a meeting on the subject Friday.

One source of the confusion is how administrative consolidation would occur, Plant said.
Government and International Affairs professor Harry Vanden agrees that the realignment plan has not alleviated any confusion.

“I think unfortunately it has further added to the feeling of disorganization and perhaps even chaos that many people feel in the university particularly the faculty and also amongst the staff. There have been layoffs and this is very concerning to people,” Vanden said.

Ralph Wilcox is the provost and senior vice president for academic affairs at USF. He said the realignment will reduce administrative overhead by creating the three schools within the CAS, "that will encourage greater synergy across the humanities.”

On Thursday, USF trustees voted to increase in-state graduate and undergraduate tuition by six to 10 percent – an increase of about 105 dollars per semester for undergrads. Out-of-state graduate students in some programs will see their tuitions decrease by 10 percent, Provost Ralph Wilcox said.

“We want to do utmost consistent with our strategic priorities of attracting the best and brightest minds to the University of South Florida. We wanted to insure that we were being competitive in our pricing and our ability to recruit non-Florida resident students at the graduate level only to USF,” Wilcox said.

In an email sent last Sunday, the dean of the College of Arts and Sciences, John Skvoretz, announced that he will resign, effective August 6th. The realignment of his college was one reason Skvoretz cited for his resignation. He wrote, quote, “It has been extremely difficult over the past six months to see the advocating of proposals for its potential dismantling with quite limited considerationof [sic] the up and down sides of such an [sic] large and potentially contentious undertaking.”

“We agreed that now was as good a time as any, not that there’s ever any good time, but, to seek some new visionary and strong leadership in the College of Arts and Sciences,” Wilcox said.
The day after Skvoretz’ email, USF announced that Communications Professor Eric Eisenberg would be interim dean of Arts and Sciences until a new dean can be hired.

“Eric is a widely sought after leader and expert in organizational change and in particular, leadership for organizational change in difficult times,” Wilcox said.

Compounding the USF’s financial problems, Governor Crist announced on Thursday that his office will hold back 4 percent of the budgets of all state agencies, including universities, because sales tax and other revenues are anticipated to be below expectations. That means about another 14 million dollar cut for USF. But Wilcox said the school was somewhat prepared for additional cuts.

Photo by Seán Kinane/WMNF
USF realignment
Previous WMNF coverage

USF Overhauls Colleges To Counter Budget Cuts

2008-06-12T16:32:00.000-04:00

USF Overhauls Colleges To Counter Budget Cuts
Tampa Bay Online
updated 4:32 p.m. ET, Thurs., June. 12, 2008

By ADAM EMERSON of The Tampa Tribune

TAMPA - University of South Florida leaders have swept through their various colleges and reworked the way they will deliver a higher education to meet the grim budget realities they now face.

The biggest changes will hit the College of Arts and Sciences, USF's largest. Although the college gains some institutes that stood alone at the university, it will undergo an administrative overhaul and lose some disciplines to other colleges.

The changes prompted the college's dean, John Skvoretz, to step down earlier this week. Skvoretz, who will remain on the USF faculty, said he was dismayed watching what he called the "dismantling" of his college.

USF Provost Ralph Wilcox, however, told faculty in a letter today that a multimillion-dollar budget cut from the state "will demand changes in both institutional structure and behavior."
The university will develop a new college featuring some disciplines formerly housed in Arts and Sciences. The schools of aging studies and social work, for instance, will align with the Louis de la Parte Florida Mental Health Institute to become the new college.

In addition, the College of Arts and Sciences will be rebuilt around three schools: behavioral and social sciences; humanities; and sciences.

Some of those schools will include disciplines that had their own administration and support staff, but now will share resources with others in the college during these leaner times.
There will be challenges, Wilcox said, and there may be more changes. "I have every confidence that, with careful thought and deliberation, reasonable people will develop reasonable solutions to the challenges we face," he said.

Altogether, the university lost $35.6 million in revenue from the state over two fiscal years, a cut that has cost the university hundreds of jobs.

USF President Judy Genshaft told trustees today that the university has laid off about 42 employees, which include 34 staff members, five administrators and three faculty members.
The pink slips won't stop there, though. As the university sets aside an additional $15 million in anticipation of another state cut, officials plan as many as 30 more layoffs, said Trudie Frecker, USF's interim chief financial officer.

The rest of the cuts will eliminate vacant positions.

The budget-cutting proposals USF announced last month have the greatest impact on the College of Arts and Sciences. Of the nearly $22 million the university will cut from the academic operations on the Tampa campus, about $7 million will come out of Arts and Sciences.

URL: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/25126018/

As long as they don't cut football

2008-06-11T18:50:00.000-04:00

By Howard Troxler, Times Columnist Published Wednesday, June 11, 2008 6:50 PM

There was a little blip in the news the other day about the resignation of the dean of arts and sciences at the University of South Florida.

This news did not exactly set off shock waves across Tampa Bay. Maybe it would have been a bigger deal if Hulk Hogan's family were somehow involved.

And yet, the resignation of this dean, John Skvoretz, is part of a story much bigger than the Hulkster — in fact, it is one of the biggest stories brewing in Florida.

Skvoretz came to USF a little more than three years ago from the University of South Carolina amid high hopes.

On the research side, see, USF goes like gangbusters. The school could well cure cancer one day and reach the nation's elite research tiers. That would be great. All for it.

On the other hand, I have never heard anyone pound a lectern and demand that USF churn out the nation's top historians, musicians or philosophers. This is understandable, considering the economics involved, but unfortunate.

So this Skvoretz fellow, a sociologist by trade, was going to work on the mix. Three years later he is quitting, getting out just before a wave of reorganization that should be announced soon.

In a statement mild by Jerry Springer standards, but a tad in-your-face for a university bureaucracy, Skvoretz said he could not abide proposals for the "potential dismantling" of the college, with only "limited consideration" of the consequences.

This is one more thing happening against a backdrop of higher-ed budget cuts across the state, and continued battles over whether Florida's universities will be under the political control of the Legislature or an independent Board of Governors.

At USF this year, the budget cuts are about $35-million.

At the University of Florida, $47-million.

At Florida State University, $32-million.

We are already into a "brain drain" as some of Florida's university leaders and faculty are lured to states that appreciate them more. North Carolina's university system, for example, recently declared this is a fine time to be plucking talent from Florida.

High-profile faculty or administrators have left for Pennsylvania and Iowa, for Northwestern and Tulane, for Ohio and North Carolina. There has been a drumbeat of departure reports.
"My wife and I don't want to leave, but this is the worst it's ever been," Charles Figley, 62, an FSU trauma expert leaving for Tulane University after nearly two decades, said in one recent article. "It's just not a good place for academics these days."

Despite all this, there are still some Floridians who will say:

So what? Who needs a bunch of crybaby professors anyway? Let 'em leave. The universities need to slash their budgets just like everybody else, anyway. And so forth.

But me, I am a child of the South who believes this above all else concerning education: No state will become great and remain great without a great state university.

That includes scientific research, but it also includes the study of poetry and philosophy, painting and dancing.

If you agree, don't tell me. Tell your legislator. Look 'em up and call or send an e-mail, and say: "Somehow, you have gotten the notion that this is the Florida that I want. You are wrong.
Change it."

In any case, we will have the state that we deserve.

USF Arts-Sciences Dean Resigning, Cites Budget Cuts

2008-06-10T20:57:00.002-04:00

By ADAM EMERSON
The Tampa Tribune, Published: June 10, 2008

TAMPA - The dean of the University of South Florida's largest college told faculty that he is stepping down and expressed dismay that the university's budget-balancing plans zeroed in on his programs.

John Skvoretz, who has led the College of Arts and Sciences since 2005, wrote in an e-mail to faculty Sunday night that it was hard watching the university weigh proposals that would dismantle the college.

The budget-cutting proposals USF announced last month have the greatest impact on the College of Arts and Sciences, which houses programs as varied as Africana studies and anthropology, along with chemistry and criminal justice.

Of the nearly $22 million the university will cut from the academic operations on the Tampa campus, about $7 million will come out of the College of Arts and Sciences, or about 32 percent of the burden.

"I carefully considered the fit between the type and style of the leadership I can provide and the type and style of the leadership the College needs at this point in time and concluded, reluctantly, that the fit is no longer there," Skvoretz said in his e-mail.

In an interview Monday, Provost Ralph Wilcox said he agreed and accepted Skvoretz's resignation. "It was time for new leadership," Wilcox said.

In a separate e-mail Monday to faculty members, Wilcox praised the dean's leadership during a time when the college grew with students and faculty. Skvoretz also led the college through a time when it produced more degrees and brought in more research funding, Wilcox said.

He noted, however, that the college is in a time of transition and that "the coming months and years will call for some difficult decision-making as we continue to focus on our strategic path to the future."

Wilcox named an interim dean, Eric Eisenberg, a professor and former chairman of USF's communications department.

Eisenberg's job will not only include improving student success and scholarly output, Wilcox said. He also must focus on boosting faculty morale.

Skvoretz, who previously led the liberal arts college at the University of South Carolina, intends to remain at USF and resume teaching and research in his specialty, social network analysis. His last day as dean is Aug. 6.

In recent weeks, Wilcox and other USF leaders have weighed plans to take some disciplines out of the College of Arts and Sciences and move them to other colleges at the university.

In his e-mail, Skvoretz wrote, "It has been extremely difficult over the past six months to see the advocating of proposals for its potential dismantling with quite limited consideration of the up and down sides of such a large and potentially contentious undertaking."

One proposal calls for removing all science departments from the college and incorporate them into the College of Engineering, said Wilcox, who added that he doesn't plan to endorse that.

The College of Arts and Sciences may undergo significant restructuring, however. The university is eliminating 170 vacant faculty positions on its Tampa campus. Of those, 41 are in the College of Arts and Sciences.

With fewer faculty members, administrators plan to reduce the available seats in course sections by 5 percent. The reductions have hit the College of Arts and Sciences hardest.

Skvoretz declined to speak much further, but wrote in a separate e-mail Monday to reporters that "Arts & Sciences is a large and diverse College and leading it can be compared to juggling chain saws while keeping 20 plates spinning - and that's when things are going well!"

Reporter Adam Emerson can be reached at (813) 259-8285 or aemerson@tampatrib.com

President presents budget reduction proposal

2008-05-22T14:17:00.002-04:00

By: Amy Mariani and Harrison Reed, Staff Writers

Posted: 5/22/08

The University must reduce its $1.8 billion budget by $35.6 million by July 1 to adhere to new budget limitations set by the state legislature.This budget would be in place until June 30, 2009.

The University, however, plans to cut $50.4 million from the budget because it anticipates another reduction by January 2009.

"This is the most severe budget cut that USF and the State University System has ever seen," said President Judy Genshaft.Genshaft, however, said that although these cuts must be made, no programs, departments or tenure-earning faculty will be eliminated. University Police and financial aid will also avoid any budget cuts."No majors or minors are cut," she said.

In order to meet the budget reductions, the University presented a budget reduction proposal to the Board of Trustees (BOT). It listed goals USF plans to achieve in order to make the cut.

The proposal was passed and the University will create a finalized budget within the next month.One action the University will take is closing down the campus, excluding the new Marshall Center and the Library, after dark. These buildings will receive more nighttime security because they will remain open.

Also, there will be more students in each class, and the variety of classes as well as the number of sections will be reduced, Genshaft said."(However), we're very committed to having as many classes as possible," Genshaft said.

Vice President of Student Affairs Jennifer Meningall said that if students are better prepared when registering - for example, by registering as soon as classes become available and regularly meeting with advisors - they will not have problems enrolling in classes they need."Behaviors, because of these reductions, are going to have to change," Meningall said.

Student Government (SG) president Gregory Morgan said that if larger class sizes are not supported by enough faculty and staff, the University's quality of education might suffer. Morgan said that SG would continue working with the administration to address student concerns.

BOT member Sherrill Tomasino said she has no concerns about the proposal. "We've held the right core values," she said. "It's going to be hard, but we can come out on target."She said it is impossible for the University to please everyone when making cuts."No one wants to do anything that will affect or hamper our success," Tomasino said. "They can't please everybody 100 percent of the time."

The University, except for some residence halls, patient clinics and buildings that house animals, will completely close during the last week of December.

During that time, employees will take three days of mandatory, unpaid vacation, she said.

Genshaft said that her three main concerns are the inability to give faculty and staff a raise for the next two years, students who may find it financially impossible to attend USF and employees who may be laid off.

"I'm very concerned with students remaining in college and graduating," she said. "Any students that are having financial difficulty and are worried about attending school in the fall, don't just drop out or stop out."Genshaft said she has asked Student Affairs and the Financial Aid Office to offer financial aid counseling and emergency financial aid to students who qualify.

The University will eliminate about 450 positions. Most of these positions, however, are unfilled because of the hiring freeze instituted in January.

Among the jobs, however, are about 75 filled positions. Some of these employees will be laid off, while others will be moved to different positions within the University."I would be extremely surprised with that number of layoffs," Wilcox said.Although the University is unsure exactly how many employees will be let go, Human Resources will be working individually with those laid off, to help them find jobs and write resumes, Genshaft said.

As part of the budget cuts, USF will also make some structural changes. Within the College of Arts and Sciences (CAS), the administration and operating expenses for smaller departments, such as women's studies and Africana studies, will be consolidated to share resources. Also, the Institute for the Study of Latin America and the Caribbean (ISLAC) and the Institute on Black Life will be merged into CAS. The School of Architecture and Community Design will also assimilated into CAS.

Each department and institution, however, will keep its academic autonomy."There will be no change in the academic structure," said Dwayne Smith, senior vice provost.

Genshaft said the University had been anticipating and preparing for the cut.

"This is a reduction that doesn't come as a big surprise," Genshaft said. "In January, we anticipated that the state budget was going to be sinking and we would all need to be taking cuts." In July 2007, USF had a budget cut of $12.2 million, and in January 2008 suffered another cut of $4.4 million.

For the next year (2008-2009), USF was instructed by the state to cut its budget again, by $19 million, bringing the total amount of cuts to $35.6 million.Within the next month, the University will have deducted this amount from its budget.

"We truly hope that is enough," Genshaft said.For the 2007-2008 year, USF received 23 percent of its total budget from the state. That number has been reduced to 18 percent for 2008-2009."This money is instructional money," Genshaft said.

"It pays for our professors, our student employment, our advisors - anything that is academic. There is no state money, for example, in athletics."The only non-private money in athletics is federal funding for Title IX, which is used to support women's athletic teams. About $300,000 is given to USF yearly for Title IX, Wilcox said.

Although the University must cut 35.6 percent from its budget because of the loss of state funds, it plans to reimburse some cuts with nonrecurring funds. Nonrecurring funds are one-time-use money that the University has on hand, somewhat like petty cash. This means that some money will not be regularly received from certain sources. Once spent, the University cannot expect to have it again next year.

With this one-time-use money, the University can only hire non-tenure earning staff. Examlples of non-tenure earning staff are graduate assistants and adjunct faculty.

According to the proposal, the University projects that it can reimburse the cuts by $6.5 million. This would bring the overall loss to approximately $29 million.

Genshaft and the vice presidents will not take a pay raise this year, in light of budget restrictions.

Faculty reactions to the budget proposal Genshaft presented the proposal to the Faculty Senate and the BOT.

After the senate meeting, faculty members questioned Provost Ralph Wilcox, voicing their concerns about the proposal, which ranged from incomplete information to allegations of racial prejudice.

Some, like associate professor of government and international affairs Steve Tauber, blamed the financial woes on Tallahassee."The government of this state doesn't value education," Tauber said. He said was disappointed by the amount of money allocated to USF for use in educational and general funds, as well as government reluctance to approve large tuition increases.

While Wilcox would not publicly criticize the government, he agreed that USF's tuition remains a major issue."Our tuition levels are miserably low," Wilcox said. "The old adage is true: You get what you pay for."

Some concerns were locally focused. Kim Vaz, chair of the department of women's studies, accused the administration of making racially and sexually biased decisions."I know we are all uncomfortable talking about race," she said. "(But) we have been treated miserably."Vaz said that many of the departments faced with consolidation - including the Institute on Black Life, ISLAC, and the departments of Africana and women's studies - have chairs who are female or ethnic minorities.

Wilcox, however, did not avoid the topic."I concur - such dialogue should take place in a university," he said. "One could just as easily point to (the School of Architecture and Community Design) or one of the small departments in the College of Education." These departments - headed by white males - are just as vulnerable, he said.

Despite the informative nature of the meeting, some in attendance said the administration was less than forthcoming."I think there is more information that needs to come out," Tauber said. Though his department did not have any proposed job losses, he said he is concerned with the fate of smaller departments.

Sherman Dorn, president of the USF chapter of the United Faculty of Florida, said he will ensure that the process remains honest and open.

"I expect to be with the administration every step of the way towards transparency," he said.

The meeting produced mixed reactions from the faculty, said Larry Branch, vice president of the faculty senate.

His concerns pertained to the inequality between the Tampa campus compared to the regional campuses and USF Health. More time was spent in the assessment and deliberation stages in Tampa, and more of the information has been shared to the public, he said.

"Those in academic affairs (at the Tampa campus) have information to judge the appropriateness of reductions. At least they know what they are dealing with," Branch said.

"USF Health is still in the rumor stage."
© Copyright 2008 The Oracle

USF To Cut 450 Jobs; Majors Safe In Budget

2008-05-22T01:13:00.003-04:00

By ADAM EMERSON
The Tampa Tribune
Published: May 22, 2008

TAMPA - With a warning that class sizes will enlarge and course offerings will tighten, the University of South Florida announced plans Wednesday to cut $50.4 million by eliminating about 450 jobs.

Calling the move "the most severe budget reduction USF has seen," university President Judy Genshaft said USF plans to lay off 70 employees in the coming weeks; the rest of the eliminated jobs are vacant. USF employs about 13,250 workers.

The cuts reflect a current deficit of nearly $36 million, a result of diminished state aid in a weakened economy. The remaining $15 million will be set aside in anticipation of another state cut in the middle of the school year.

At the university's Tampa campus - it is USF's largest with 38,000 students - academic operations, health sciences and other departments will be cut by $42.5 million. Officials will cut some of that by streamlining administration, but they plan to eliminate 170 open faculty positions.

"As a result, the number of students in classes will continue to increase," Genshaft said in several meetings Wednesday with faculty, student leaders and trustees. "The array of classes offered and number of sections will continue to be reduced."

Even so, the university won't lay off tenured faculty, or those who are on track to be tenured, Genshaft said. The university froze all hiring in January to prepare for the cuts, though many faculty members have left since then.

Most of the layoffs will fall on support staff and administrators. Only seven faculty members not on track toward tenure will be laid off.

Keeping Majors; Shrinking Staff

USF also won't eliminate any degree offerings or majors, a prospect many faculty and students had feared in recent weeks. Some smaller departments, however, will lose some of their support staff and will have to share resources with other programs.

Such instability has many academics fearing a loss of faculty to other colleges and universities that aren't experiencing the same turmoil. Kim Vaz, chairwoman of USF's women's studies program, said one of her instructors is being courted by another college, and another wants to be transferred to another department.

"I don't even know who my faculty will be next year," said Vaz, whose program will begin sharing resources with other departments.

With diminished programs and services, students will find longer lines throughout campus, particularly as they wait for academic advisers. The university didn't fill jobs left open when advisers left.

Students also will find academic buildings closed late at night. The university wants to close the buildings to save energy costs and increase security. As a trade-off, the university will extend the hours and boost security at the library and the Marshall Center student union.
That leaves student leaders worried about student life.

With larger class sizes and fewer course offerings, the university will have to enhance student services, not reduce them, said Greg Morgan, USF's recently elected student body president.

A Trail of Cuts

The cuts are just the first stage of a cost-cutting plan administrators are undertaking before they deliver the 2008-09 budget to their Board of Trustees next month.

USF already has cut nearly $17 million this fiscal year from the pot of money it gets from the state; it's cutting $19 million from the fiscal year that starts July 1. State revenue collections have fallen, leaving lawmakers to slash nearly $4 billion from education, health care, public safety and other areas statewide.

Universities throughout Florida are feeling the pain as well. The University of Florida, the state's flagship university, recently announced it is cutting $47 million from its budget. It is doing so by cutting nearly 430 jobs.

State revenue projections continue to fall, so USF is planning cautiously by cutting a total $50.4 million, which amounts to 15 percent of the money it gets from the state.

"We truly hope 15 percent is enough," Genshaft said. "It may not be."

In addition to cuts, USF is searching for ways to save money. Administrators put a stop to all spending on "non-essential services" and are working to reorganize various departments. Officials will reinvest whatever savings they find in academics.

The university also will close its buildings the last full week of December, which will require employees to take three of their annual leave days. That saves the university on energy costs and on annual leave payouts to employees when they leave the school, said Michael Hoad, USF's spokesman.

Many faculty members, however, said there is one source of money at USF's disposal that can soften the blow of budget cuts.

They point to assets the university classifies as "unrestricted" and argue that administrators can use that money to preserve some jobs and services, or at least afford laid-off employees more time to look for employment.

By the end of the 2006-07 fiscal year, USF had about $240 million in these assets.

Genshaft said that much of that money was committed to other projects, but said about $70 million carried over to this fiscal year as cash. But that amounts to an average month of payroll and other expenses, Genshaft said, and the USF board wants at least one month of cash reserved for emergencies.

The problem also comes from using one-time cash to pay salaries that require the recurring dollars that have been cut, USF Provost Ralph Wilcox said.

"Available cash doesn't really help," he said.

Money 'Could Buy Time'

That money, though, could be useful to employees forced to leave, said Susan Greenbaum, a professor of anthropology and a former Faculty Senate president.

"This could buy time," Greenbaum said.

Lay-off notices will be sent out the first week of June, and affected employees will have between 45 and 90 days to leave the university, depending on their status. The university also will help them find other work, Genshaft said.

Not all may permanently lose their jobs, Wilcox said. Some may be hired in another capacity. Others may be needed to fill positions left after people retire.

The university also will use its one-time cash to hire visiting faculty needed to teach courses in the fall, Genshaft said.

While most of the cost-cutting moves will fill the deeper budget hole at the Tampa campus, the university system's regional campuses also will feel the brunt.

A 15 percent budget reduction to USF St. Petersburg adds up to $4.2 million. For USF Polytechnic, formerly USF Lakeland, the cuts total $1.5 million.

About $2.2 million will be cut from USF Sarasota-Manatee. Jobs at these campuses will be cut mostly through attrition.

Genshaft also said that she is cutting nearly $1 million from her executive offices. She told the board that she and her vice presidents will forgo raises, although the amount of money that would save the university was unclear Wednesday.

Reporter Adam Emerson can be reached at (813) 259-8285 or aemerson@tampatrib.com.

USF to cut 450 jobs as 1st step

2008-05-21T22:30:00.003-04:00

By Shannon Colavecchio-Van Sickler
Times Staff Writer Published
Wednesday, May 21, 2008 9:11 PM

TAMPA — The University of South Florida will cope with a $35.6-million loss in state funding by eliminating 450 staff and nontenured faculty positions, scaling back campus maintenance and some student services, and shutting down many academic buildings at night, administrators announced Wednesday.

Additional cuts and changes are likely in coming months, as the state's economy continues to sour.

"What we're doing today is the first step," warned provost Ralph Wilcox. "But for now, we know that we will have 45,000 students again this fall, with $35.6-million less in our budget."

USF will not freeze or eliminate degree programs or cut freshman enrollment as other state institutions plan to do this fall. And the positions of tenured and tenure-track faculty members are safe under the plan approved by USF trustees.

But students will nonetheless feel the impact of lost nontenured faculty and support staff members.

"The number of students in classes will continue to increase; the array of classes offered and the number of sections offered will continue to decrease," said USF president Judy Genshaft.
Student body president Greg Morgan, 22, said administrators need to make sure the larger classes and reduced course sections don't lead to lower graduation rates.
"We need to support students toward graduation," he said.

In all, USF is reducing its annual budget by 15 percent, or $50-million. The $35.6-million is the amount lawmakers trimmed from USF's state funding starting in July 2007.

Administrators are holding back the remaining $14.4-million because they anticipate the governor and lawmakers — facing more revenue shortfalls — will have to further cut the state's $66.2-billion budget.

Genshaft outlined the cost-cutting measures during a series of meetings Wednesday with reporters, faculty members, staff members and student leaders.

"I hope a 15 percent cut is enough," Genshaft said repeatedly. "I hope it's enough."
All but 70 of the 450 positions to be cut are empty — part of cost-saving measures that USF began several months ago.

Those facing layoffs are mostly staffers in areas ranging from custodial services to colleges like education and liberal arts and sciences.

Genshaft and her vice presidents are declining any salary increase as part of the plan.
The university will essentially shut down for three days in December, when all employees will be forced to use three of their personal leave days. Many administrative and classroom buildings will be locked daily between 10:30 p.m. and 6 a.m., reducing utility and security costs.

Also, USF will use money in reserve to fill 170 vacant teaching positions for fall with adjuncts and nontenured visiting instructors.

"We have to teach classes in the fall, and we have an obligation to the students here," Wilcox said.

USF security will not be cut, and Genshaft is expanding USF's program for emergency financial aid and counseling.

"I don't want students to drop out because they couldn't afford gasoline or couldn't afford to pay for school," she said.

Shannon Colavecchio-Van Sickler can be reached at svansickler@sptimes.com or (813) 226-3403.

Fast facts: Each campus loses

The $35.6-million in budget cuts will affect USF Health, the main campus and three branch campuses:
USF Tampa: $23.3-million.
USF Health: $6.7-million.
USF St. Petersburg: $3-million.
USF Sarasota-Manatee: $1.53-million.
USF Polytechnic (Lakeland): $1-million.

USF announces budget cuts from

2008-05-21T22:28:00.003-04:00

FOX 13

TAMPA - The University of South Florida has announced budget cuts of $35.6 million that will eliminate classes and possibly lead to dozens of layoffs.

The budget cuts include the elimination of about 500 positions. University officials say most of those positions have remained vacant during a hiring freeze, but 70 employees will face layoffs.
All degree offerings and majors remain intact, but officials said there would be "shortfalls" in course offerings.

The cuts will not come from financial aid, and tenured professors will not have their positions cut.
The cuts represent about 10 percent of the money USF receives from the state. Officials say they have been planning for a 15 percent cut in those funds through the past fiscal year with college-by-college meetings.

Last Edited: Wednesday, 21 May 2008, 4:29 PM EDT
Created: Wednesday, 21 May 2008, 4:29 PM EDT

USF Union Seeks Budget Cut Delay

2008-05-21T22:12:00.000-04:00

By ADAM EMERSON
The Tampa Tribune
Published: May 20, 2008

TAMPA - As the University of South Florida prepares to announce its budget-cutting plan this week, its faculty union is saying, not so fast.

Over the weekend, union leaders sent an e-mail calling on the university administration to suspend any plans to reorganize USF's various academic departments so the faculty can discuss pending cuts further.

University officials plan to announce their cost-cutting efforts Wednesday to USF trustees. Although USF has to cut about $35 million because of a drop in state aid, administrators have been planning to eliminate more than $50 million in case legislators take away even more in the middle of the school year, as anticipated.

Some argue, however, that the university has cash in reserve to absorb at least some of these cuts. Union President Sherman Dorn pointed to some assets at USF's disposal classified as "unrestricted."

Unrestricted net assets, according to February's audit of USF's finances, "are available to the University for any lawful purpose."

By the end of the 2006-07 fiscal year, USF had about $240 million in such assets, a number that has grown over the past decade.

Dorn concedes that not all that money is available to stave off cuts. He added, though, that "there is the question of values and priorities: Why should students, faculty and staff suffer the brunt of the Legislature's decisions when USF has resources that could be used to buffer academics from the worst of the state budget cuts?"

USF spokesman Michael Hoad said the university commits much of that money to other needs. For example, the budgets for auxiliary services, such as alumni and athletic associations, originate in this "unrestricted" classification.

There was unspent money at the end of the fiscal year: about $70 million. That is the equivalent of one month's payroll and expenses for the university, Hoad said, adding that trustees want to keep a month of cash on hand.

Regardless, the university plans to tap into that unspent pot of money to help balance the budget, Hoad said. The problem comes with using one-time cash to bankroll jobs requiring recurring amounts of money.

"Real multiyear commitments to faculty require recurring money," Hoad said. "The cuts

are made to recurring funds.

"We believe the trustees' desire for at least one-month cash reserve makes sense, especially given the strong potential for greater cuts during the course of the next fiscal year."

Dorn argued, however, that the university must do a better job showing where these assets go. Layoffs of faculty and staff will only mean larger class sizes and a depreciated academic environment for students, he said.

The question, Dorn said, comes down to choices: "The choice of the administration today is which takes priority, the academic mission or the reserve pool of unrestricted assets," he said.

Reporter Adam Emerson can be reached at (813) 259-8285 or aemerson@tampatrib.com.

USF To Cut About 450 Jobs

2008-05-21T22:02:00.001-04:00

By ADAM EMERSON The Tampa Tribune
Published: May 21, 2008

TAMPA - To close a nearly $36 million deficit, the University of South Florida plans to cut about 450 jobs on all its campuses, university leaders announced today.

Most of the jobs have been unfilled since USF President Judy Genshaft froze all hiring in the spring, but the university plans to lay off about 70 people.

Despite such deep cuts, Genshaft said she plans to eliminate no degree offerings or majors, and she said she'll retain all faculty who are tenured or on track to be tenured.

That leaves about 170 vacant faculty positions that will stay unfilled.
Provost Ralph Wilcox said such a cut "is going to impact quite significantly" the number of courses offered and the size of the classes left to take on the burden.

Many of the layoffs will affect the university's maintenance and grounds crews, Genshaft said. Layoff notices will go out the first week of June, and employees will have 45 to 90 days to leave their jobs, depending on their status.

Not all who receive a layoff notice will permanently lose their jobs, Wilcox said. Some may be hired back in some capacity, as other employees will retire in the coming months.

The university also will close the last full week of December and require employees to take three of their annual leave days.

Reporter Adam Emerson can be reached at (813) 259-8285 or aemerson@tampatrib.com.

THANKS TO OUR STUDENTS WHO ARE FIGHTING TO PRESERVE OUR ACADEMIC AND OPERATIONAL AUTONOMY

2008-05-17T22:03:00.002-04:00

Make a Smilebox slideshow

UFF-USF Strongly Recommends the Immediate Suspension of all Efforts in Progress to Reorganize the Colleges and Subunits

2008-05-17T20:43:00.006-04:00

At the May 16 meeting of the USF Chapter of the UFF, the Chapter passed the following motion:"The USF Chapter of the United Faculty of Florida strongly recommends the immediate suspension of all efforts in progress to reorganize the colleges and subunits thereof pending further deliberation by the faculty and the substantial involvement of the faculty in considering, making and implementing any plans regarding such reorganization."

Again, we urge all members of the university community to attend the USF Faculty Senate Meeting on Wednesday, March 21, at 1 pm, at the Louis de la Parte Florida Mental Health Institute Westside Conference Center, Room E. In addition, there will be a meeting of the Board of Trustees at 3:30 pm in the Marshall Center Ballroom: the BOT agenda is posted at https://frontend.cas.usf.edu/exchweb/bin/redir.asp?URL=http://usfweb2.usf.edu/board/pdfs/meetings/052108/Agenda%2520052108.pdf. These meetings are open to the public.

The matters before us are of great importance and deserve our attention, for the decisions made will affect USF for decades to come. And members of the UFF Bargaining Unit are encouraged to consider joining UFF in preparation for hurricane season: see https://frontend.cas.usf.edu/exchweb/bin/redir.asp?URL=http://faculty.ourusf.org/2008/04/30/join-uff-may-june-or-july-and-dont-pay-dues-until-august-1/.

USF’s unrestricted assets: $240 million in 2007 from UFF-USF President Sherman Dorn's blog

2008-05-14T22:47:00.001-04:00

On the very last afternoon of the legislative session (May 2), I received an analysis of USF’s last five audited financial statements, and the general picture is that USF is financially healthy, among the healthiest of Florida’s public universities. State support for higher education in Florida is falling, but different colleges and universities have a broad range of abilities to absorb the cuts this year. USF is relatively well-positioned to insulate the central academic mission. As a result, USF’s administration and Trustees have a choice of whether to put the university on a glide path towards a different revenues structure or to let the academics crash. …….

Could USF use its reserve of unrestricted assets to absorb all of the lost state funding?

Some of the unrestricted assets are liquid, but others are not. I do not know the amount USF
could draw down over a single year. But it could use some of those unrestricted assets, and it can certainly be public about how much of those assets are liquid and usable over the next year. The university can also be much more open about the purpose of the growing unrestricted assets over the past half-decade.

Beyond the liquidity of the unrestricted assets, there is the question of values and priorities: why should students, faculty, and staff suffer the brunt of the legislature’s decisions when USF has resources that could be used to buffer academics from the worst of the state budget cuts? The choice of the administration today is which takes priority, the academic mission or the reserve pool of unrestricted assets.

Click below for more:
http://faculty.ourusf.org/2008/05/14/usfs-unrestricted-assets-240-million-in-2007/

Scholar Cites USF's WST as an example of how budget cuts are used as opportunities to weaken WST among others

2008-05-12T22:11:00.003-04:00

Barbara Winkler’s Conference Paper, “’Laboring in the Knowledge Factory:
A View from Women’s Studies”

Highlights USF’s WST as an Example of how budget crises in higher education and resulting retrenchment can become occasions for destabilizing women’s studies Programs and Departments.

“….corporatization has now provided new language, new criteria, to destabilize women’s studies”

"Rethinking the University: Labor, Knowledge, Value," A Conference Sponsored by the Univeristy of Minnesota, April 11-Sunday, April 13 2008

“This conference is to explore the effects of “corporatization” on the university as well as explore possibilities of organizing to respond to this condition.”

Click here to see papers.

In Silence Students Make a Loud Statement During USF Graduation

2008-05-06T00:03:00.011-04:00

Click here to Watch the Video of the Student Protest Against the Diminishment of the Departments of Women’s Studies and Africana Studies at the University of south Florida.

Tampa, Florida —- It is graduation weekend at USF. There are eight ceremonies scheduled but the one tonight got the weekend off to an interesting start.

As some students were making adjustments to their cap and gown are trying to figure out what side the tassel goes on. Tracy Labady summed up what the day means to her as well as to many others, “Really it's been a long time, four years in the making and I am so ready.”

However a handful of these women are graduating with a chip on their shoulder. They are upset at proposed budget cuts that are on tap at USF.

The school is planning to slash approximately $35 million dollars by next fall potentially impacting two long standing programs, Women Studies and Africana Studies. To show off their frustrations, they decided to protest.

“It's a show of disappointment that I'm disappointed in what is going on, it shows that, so I think it will work” says graduate Vanessa Ruiz.” Labady adds that only during a time of celebration could they get their point across, “I figured out that this would be the perfect moment to protest these budget cuts, because if not on a college campus, where can you speak?”

So they protested in front of nearly 900 fellow graduates as well as the most powerful woman at USF, the very one whose hand they would be shaking, President Judy Genshaft.

So as hundreds of students before them celebrated their years of hard work with a fist pump or a hug, they protested by simply not speaking and applying a sticker over their mouth.

“I was a little nervous that they weren't going to let us on the stage with our mouths covered but, activism is a really exciting thing and when it's something that I really believe in and I believe in this program, then I think it's really important” says Alyssa Evans-Keene.

President Genshaft just went through the motions as every student walked by. A few tried to hand the President a sticker with their message.

One can say their message stuck with thousands, but not with others.

----------------------------

Good Work Ladies!!

They are continuing to fight for what is right at our University.You should do the same, it’s a rough economy and colleges are cutting programs left and right. Check on the status of the smaller programs at your undergrad, and be prepared to stand up and fight, make a donation to that department etc. The programs that aren’t on the chopping block tend to be the ones that get the most money in (usually sciences, engineering etc). But as a student, former student, faculty etc, we know which departments have an impact on student’s lives! Be and advocate for those programs.

Once again Good Job Ladies--click to go to the source

Background on the Budgetary Crisis -- a veiw from the Faculty Union (UFF-USF)

2008-04-30T21:30:00.001-04:00

BUT WILL IT FLY? UFF-USF

Sherman Dorn, Ph.D.

We expected reorganization plans designed to cut costs for a bad budget year, but the proposals are more sweeping and address different issues. And we are getting the hard sell: a decision has to be made NOW. This does not bode well for the ultimate success of the reorganization, no matter how laudable. For more, see below or at http://faculty.ourusf.org/2008/05/01/but-will-it-fly/.

---------------------------------------------
BUT WILL IT FLY?

Economists warn us that we are facing the worst economic downturn since the Great Depression, and that we should expect hard times through 2010 or 2011. Florida has been hit harder than other states, and several state universities have announced major cuts: Florida International announced that it could lay off two hundred employees, while Gainesville warned that some of the most popular programs in the state faced the knife. USF administrators have proposed many rearrangements, some of them having little to do with the immediate financial crunch.

The fiscal year ends in two months, and after the governor takes a veto pen to the legislature's budget, USF will be informed what its budget will be next year. Even now, the proposed budget is grim, and if the governor vetoes the 6% tuition hike included in the budget, the financial outlook will be grimmer. Even that budget may be inflated: at the latest United Faculty of Florida Senate meeting, UFF (statewide) president Tom Auxter warned that the real figures may not come out until November. Our legislative contacts report that Florida’s political leadership may be trying to make it through the elections without letting on how bad the fiscal situation is, and a special legislative session after the election might cut the state budget further. When Provost Ralph Wilcox says that USF has an obligation to meet its payroll, he is expressing a welcome realism.

On the other hand, the administration says that much of the reorganization is not just for budget-cutting. As observed previously (see Sherman Dorn’s commentary at http://faculty.ourusf.org/2008/04/17/addressing-the-budget-separately-from-long-term-issues/), many faculty think that administrators can take advantage of emergencies to institute otherwise impolitic changes – even changes having little to do with the emergency. And although our administration sold much of the reorganization as an opportunity for future accomplishment rather than a necessity for dealing with the immediate crisis, the administration has followed the hard sell strategy of insisting on committing to reorganization NOW.

It is during a crisis that clarity is most valuable, so we should separate out the two threads of the emergency and the opportunity. Let's begin with the emergency.

BACKGROUND ON THE EMERGENCY AND THE OPPORTUNITY

Last fall, Provost Khator, in consultation with the Faculty Senate, charged a Budget Priorities Task Force to "review all academic centers, institutes, departments, and programs, and prepare recommendations that would allow us to make budget reductions strategically." This task force only examined academic units within Academic Affairs on the Tampa campus, and was structured so that no reviewer was connected to a unit that reviewer helped evaluate. On February 29, the Budget Priorities Task Force submitted its report (see the 126-page PDF document posted at http://www.acad.usf.edu/News/2007-07-03-Update-On-Issues/docs/Budget-Priorities-Advisory-Taskforce-Final-Report-2008-02-29.pdf), which listed brief ratings (on "centrality", "quality", "demand", and "viability") and evaluations of the colleges and departments. The document was released publicly, before chairs, directors, and deans had the opportunity to respond. Considering the number of units evaluated, the evaluations were inevitably terse and occasionally inconsistent with past reviews conducted by external panels drawn from a unit’s own discipline. That inconsistency and the lack of a pre-release review opportunity led to some departments’ being surprised and disappointed at both the process and the result of the task force. Many departments responded in March (see http://www.acad.usf.edu/News/2007-07-03-Update-On-Issues/docs/Responses-to-Budget-Priorities-Advisory-Taskforce-Report.pdf).

The evaluations did suggest some cost savings, and in particular tended to recommend that free-standing institutes find new funding sources. Several departmental mergers were proposed, particularly of units that seemed to be having difficulties. Perhaps the idea was that the synergy of merging two departments would improve performance, but certainly such mergers would reduce administrative costs.

Editorial comment: it is not clear that reducing resources – either by merger or by other means – would help any unit. If the university has a strong stake in a unit, then a wiser course may be to provide additional resources and perhaps additional nagging. On the other hand, if the university is trying a tactful way of abandoning a low-priority program at a time of budgetary stress, a merger can provide good cover.

In March, the second (opportunity) thread appeared when Arts & Science chairs received notice that administrators were contemplating breaking up the college, with natural sciences being merged with engineering. That move would be accompanied by other shuffling throughout the university. Decisions on these changes were to be made within a month, and in this compressed time scale the emergency and opportunity threads appeared to be conflated. At the April 14 meeting with engineering and natural science faculty, the provost and a few supporters of the college-level reorganization spoke of benefits to natural science of having its understaffed departments merged into a large college, although speakers were vague on how these benefits would materialize and in what form. Most faculty expressed concerns, most notably why an immediate commitment was necessary for changes unrelated to the budget problem.

Some faculty supporters of the merger hoped that it would resolve longstanding administrative problems, notably inequitable allocation of credit for external funding. But the suggestion that the university might simply address these administrative kinks was met by a pointed response by Engineering Dean John Wiencek that the opportunity called for more than "tweaking" policy.

REACTIONS AND THE FUTURE OF THE REORGANIZATION

After Arts and Sciences chairs complained about the discussion (or the insufficiency thereof), the administration has backed down from its initial plan to commit to the reorganization in April, and now plans to make the commitment by July 1 when the next fiscal year begins. And at its April meeting, the Faculty Senate resolved to "establish the Faculty Senate Task Force to Review the Administrative Structure of the University of South Florida," and to meet on May 21.

But the most visible publicity this spring has focused on the proposal that Africana Studies, Women's Studies, the Institute for the Study of Latin America and the Caribbean (ISLAC), and the Institute on Black Life (IBL) be merged. The proposed merger was seen as downgrading these units, and the resulting uproar, including last week’s student protest, was reported in the local newspapers, Inside Higher Ed, and the Chronicle for Higher Education. Some money would be saved – not much – so this could be a cost saving measure or perhaps (as some feared) a tactful way of abandoning low-priority programs.

Legally, the reorganization of USF is a management decision, but it has academic consequences, and as the reorganization proceeds, the Faculty Senate will be engaged over the next year. And reorganization affects the terms and conditions of employment, so the United Faculty of Florida watching the situation very carefully, especially the consequences for tenure-track faculty. A few dozen faculty have consulted with chapter officers over the past few months, and that will certainly continue. (The current officer list is at http://faculty.ourusf.org/contact-chapter-officers/).
But will this reorganization work? As a package, it is supposed to cut the budget while seizing an opportunity to develop interdisciplinary research and not harm academics. The stakes are high: USF faces tens of millions of dollars in cuts, and these cuts must come from somewhere. In bad budget years, nerves fray and morale sinks as the administration faces only bad choices and worse choices. And this is a horrible budget year.

An effective reorganization requires not only much political capital but also broad support and widespread assistance. A top-down reorganization, devised and dictated by a small group of people, will cost a lot of political capital to sell and may have too little support and assistance from faculty and professional ranks to succeed. Every university that aspires to greatness must be a "loosely-coupled" system requiring the voluntary and committed action of faculty.

This is the hard-headed argument for faculty governance: because faculty work in the gut of the university, it is better to have broad support for an imperfect organization than apathy about theoretically better one. Several years ago, the Board of Trustees and the United Faculty of Florida agreed to language in the Collective Bargaining Agreement committing both parties "... to principles of shared governance, which require that in the development of academic policies and processes, the professional judgments of employees are of primary importance." That lofty language carries a gritty reality. The goals of the university can best be met when faculty and administrators work together. This summer, the choices that the upper-level administration makes, and the process involved, will not only determine whether few or many have a stake in USF's success, but whether USF succeeds.