SAS places freeze on staff hiring

SAS will implement a school-wide freeze on hiring, staff position reclassifications and salary adjustments, as well as various budget reductions, Dean Rebecca Bushnell announced in an e-mail to School of Arts and Sciences faculty and staff yesterday.

Bushnell's office also plans to work closely with departments and programs to identify the most effective cost-cutting measures and to allocate remaining finances only to matters of the highest priority for the 2010 fiscal year.

"It's not completely unexpected," said Earth and Environmental Science department chairman Fred Scatena. "There needed to be some changes ... let's hope that's all that's needed."

The message explained that SAS aims to reduce its staff by 5 to 8 percent, primarily through attrition, over the next several years. SAS will also institute a hiring freeze for all staff positions funded through unrestricted sources.

Additionally, SAS will follow the University-wide mandate to freeze staff position reclassifications and salary adjustments.

In planning for the 2010 fiscal year, every SAS department, program and unit must decrease non-compensation operating expenses - like travel or professional conference attendance - budgeted for 2009 by 10 percent. In 2010, SAS will also reduce departmental budgets for temporary employees by 7 percent from the previous year.

Scatena said this summer SAS sent a message to faculty and staff announcing a "postponement" of new faculty positions from July 2009 to July 2010.

This announcement was followed by another e-mail to SAS faculty in September detailing a plan for a "modest contraction" of 5 to 8 percent in faculty size over the next few years. At the time, the size of the standing faculty had grown to a high of 499.

The September e-mail also said that the school had "reevaluated" its major facilities initiatives, reducing its financial commitments to these projects by 35 percent.

English professor Michael Gamer wrote in an e-mail that SAS's actions this summer "before the real economic downturn" showed "real foresight."

Bushnell explained in the e-mail sent yesterday that the steps specified in September were "not enough to counteract the additional negative effects of the economy that we could not have anticipated."

While Penn is less dependent on endowment income than many schools, Bushnell wrote, officials need to anticipate the effects of a national slowdown in philanthropy.

"Everyone should recognize that there are financial troubles," said College Associate Dean and director of academic affairs Kent Peterman Kent Peterman. He added that the University needs to "adjust to the situation."

Provost Ron Daniels declined to speak on behalf of SAS.

"These are very prudent measures that will protect us going forward," Bushnell said in an interview. "We are hoping for the best."

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