EWU trustees approve budget reductions

CHENEY – After two days of meetings — including one that featured some often contentious and angry public input — Eastern Washington University’s Board of Trustees approved a $270.44 million supplemental 2021 fiscal year budget that reflects an anticipated $22.54 million loss in revenue due to impacts of COVID-19.

The board’s decision on June 25 came with a caveat, a provision that required administration to present its plan for allocating proposed personnel cuts and department changes to the board first before proceeding. Through May 31, the university has made 340 personnel moves that includes 108 layoffs, 113 reductions in terms and 37 reassignments.

Fifty-seven currently vacant positions will go unfilled, but to meet additional budget needs, officials believe they are looking at more personnel moves — something that has caused consternation and in some cases anger among faculty and staff who see these moves as disproportionately impacting academics.

Part of the latter stems from differences between two “expenditure reduction models” that show changes to academics funding ranging from $13.38 million in one to $19 million in another, while reductions to other departments such as athletics, the president’s office and business and finance actually decrease under the $19 million model.

Business and Finance Vice President Mary Voves told the board the models are meant to illustrate two “book ends” of what might be done to reduce expenses. Those figures are not final, she added.

“These numbers can change dramatically throughout the course of the year as we work with our individual employee units to help smooth the way for these reductions,” Voves said.

Already projecting a decline in enrollment in 2021, Eastern expects its headcount to drop even further — by as much as 1,200 students — due to measures enacted to combat the spread of the coronavirus. The drop in enrollment could translate to a loss of $12 million in operating fee revenue, further exacerbated by a potential decline of $9.9 million in state revenue due early projects of a loss of $7 billion from the economic impacts of COVID-19 measures.

That changed recently with release of a report by the Economic and Revenue Forecast Council projecting $8.8 billion in losses through 2023. Voves said the university will need to plan for future reductions in revenue of around 15 percent.

“They are telling us to plan for two biennia of reduced or flat budgets because it will take us that long to recover,” she added.

Besides layoffs, the trustee’s decision authorized other measures to offset revenue losses, including a 2.5 percent across the board increase in tuition and fees. The university is also planning on using a total of $12.3 million in some of its reserves, and has received federal help to the tune of $8.083 million in CARES Act funding.

“These are one time dollars but they help smooth the transition so that we can make studied decisions as we go,” Voves said.

The trustee’s also encouraged the administration to look into some other measures to deal with the financial crisis — beginning with discussions with the faculty union. In his report at the meeting, United Faculty of Eastern President Dr. Michael Conlin said faculty had “repeatedly” pressed the union to offer a variety of concessions to the university, including temporary measures totaling over $5 million, but were told by university officials they were more interested in using reserves to fill holes.

“We would still be willing to make those concessions to save EWU, to help meet this immediate need,’ he added.

Provost Dr. David May said they had three meetings with the UFE and the concessions they brought forward “certainly demonstrated their willingness to discuss deep sacrifices as part of the solution.” May said the proposals were short-term measures and also intended to dissuade the trustees from declaring a severe financial crisis, which would trigger reduction in force clauses in the union’s contract.

May listed several other concerns administration had with the proposals, including one that centered on external conditions outside their control and another that raised legal issues on faculty availability to students. Even so, he indicated administration is still willing to continue discussions on revenue saving measures.

Trustees elected to table consideration of declaring a severe financial crisis to a future meeting.

John McCallum can be reached at [email protected].