Administration: Meet the Dean
Angle's Update
A weekly report from Dean & Director J. Scott Angle
June 25 , 2008
Budget Update - As we all know, the country has been weathering the economic impacts of a slowdown in the economy for some time. Georgia is also feeling the effects of the sluggish economy which has forced the state government to take action. With the reduction in state revenues, the Governor’s Office of Planning and Budget has instructed all state agencies to identify 3.50% of their FY2009 state budget for reduction. In addition, when preparing for our FY2010 budget request, we must identify an additional .50% for a total reduction of 4.00%. While our budget grew this year following a positive recommendation from the governor, the cuts noted above, combined with higher fuel costs, health insurance, etc., essentially guarantees that we will not grow our programs this year as anticipated.
Several months ago when the estimated cut was 2.0%, I was prepared to handle the reduction from the college administration and support units so as not to adversely impact academic departments and districts. However, I also pointed out that if the cut became greater, the entire college would be impacted. To manage these cuts, we have developed the following plan:
- Reduce administration and support units’ non-personal services budgets by 10%. I want to make it clear that this does not apply to departments and districts.
- Implement a hiring slowdown – only the most critical and highest-priority positions will be filled. As more positions become vacant during the year and we are able to generate the needed funds to meet our budget cut, we will reevaluate high priority positions to be released for filling. Only those positions that are currently advertised will be allowed to move forward now. Also, all commitments will be honored for new hires and retention packages.
Graduate Enrollment – I want to once again remind faculty to please consider using graduate students in their programs. CAES ranks near the bottom of colleges in terms of the number of graduate students per tenure track faculty. There clearly are reasons for this low ranking, including but not limited to the distance of Tifton/Griffin from Athens. However, this is one area of the college that needs to be improved. I am currently assessing graduate student numbers by department and will be talking to the department heads about this data later.
Note: For news about your fellow faculty and staff, visit the College Newsletter.