Brutal follow-up:
Mizzou job cuts may have profs emptying trash
Whether interim Mizzou Chancellor Hank Foley will be cleaning his office and taking out his own trash come July 1 is unclear.
What is known, however, is that dozens of custodial staff positions at the University of Missouri-Columbia will be eliminated over the next three months, meaning others will have to pick up the slack.
In all, about 16,000 Mizzou hospital and campus employees --- including professors — will be responsible for the upkeep of their offices beginning this summer.
Students will be immune to the extra work.
The elimination of custodial positions is part of a nearly $5.5 million plan to cut spending within MU Operations, the department responsible for cleaning, maintaining and repairing the school’s buildings.
A total of 50 positions will be cut through layoffs and attrition.
The department will also cut back on landscaping, mail delivery and long-term maintenance projects.
The cuts to MU Operations do not include MU Police or the MU Environmental Health and Safety department.
Cutting $5.5 million out of MU Operations is just one part of the overall dilemma the university is trying to solve --- namely erasing an estimated $32 million budget gap projected for the 2016-17 fiscal year.
Having to take out his own trash is not a big deal to Faculty Council Chairman Ben Trachtenberg.
“Frankly, you’re not going to see a lot of faculty complaining, especially when people are being laid off,” he said.
The concern for a number of university employees contacted on Tuesday is whether these cuts are a harbinger for more painful days ahead.
Some say the dominoes started falling last month when the university put a stop to all merit-based pay increases and instituted a universitywide hiring freeze.
University leaders are anticipating a drop in enrollment this fall that could top out around 1,500 fewer students. If that decline becomes real, it could lead to a $20 million loss in revenue.
With the projected decline in students, recruiting becomes that much more important.
As of now, university leaders say they don’t know how cutting services will impact the recruiting process.
“One of the major selling points of the campus is its beauty,” spokesman Christian Basi said. “Prospective students constantly tell us it was the campus visit that sold them.”
Part of the cuts to MU Operations will result in scaled back landscaping and reduced upkeep in general: Parking lots will only be cleaned on Mondays and there will be no weekend cleanup after home football games.
“Obviously we are going to make sure we present the campus in the absolute best light,” Basi said.
But it will be difficult to determine if the reduced services have any long-term impact, he added.
Either way, the university is already preparing to lose students. Two dormitories --- Laws Hall and Lathrop Hall — will close at the end of the school year.
And two more, Excellence Hall and Respect Hall, will be used as backups this fall, opening only if other residence halls fill up.
It wouldn’t be cost-effective to keep open half-empty residence halls, Basi said.