Dear Campus Community,
Thank you to all the UC Riverside employees who provided feedback about the President’s Job Protection Program. This program would, in effect, implement some level of one-time temporary salary reduction during the 2020-2021 fiscal year, based on an approved salary tier.
The intent for these one-time savings would be to contribute to overall budget reductions at each UC campus. The target for savings through this program given to UCR was $2.9 million from all revenue sources.
We held a virtual campus forum on December 16 and have since received many additional comments along with feedback from the Academic Senate.
While the $2.9 million one-time savings target is not insignificant, it is small in comparison to the projected $70-$75 million cumulative base budget shortfall in the core budget and the $100 million fiscal year 2021 projected shortfall in our non-core budget. Our campus already has a very lean staff and implementing this program would reduce overall staff time for critical campus needs.
Therefore, we have recommended to the Chancellor, and he has approved, that we join seven other UC campuses and not implement this program at UCR for the remainder of the 2021 fiscal year.
We will evaluate the merits of this program once again, and our anticipated financial position for fiscal year 2022, later this spring.
Since March of 2020, campus units instituted a heightened control on vacant positions in the likelihood that the pandemic was going to lead to state budget reductions. Based on budget plans submitted we estimate that 120 staff FTE across all fund sources have generated $8.5 million in total savings towards job protection.
Once again, thank you for providing valuable feedback as we navigate through challenging financial decisions.
Sincerely,
Thomas Smith
Interim Provost and Executive Vice Chancellor
Gerry Bomotti
Vice Chancellor and Chief Financial Officer