University of New Orleans President Peter J. Fos revealed that the university would be doing some spring cleaning of their own in upcoming months.
In a Feb. 28 press release, Fos announced that 28 staff positions would be eliminated from UNO’s current personnel, in order to reduce their current $6 million budgetary deficit.
In the press release, Fos said these cuts alone are anticipated to reduce costs by more than $2 million. The rest of the deficit will be filled with money from university reserve funds.
“The goal in this difficult process was to preserve the academic and research core of the university, which are the central features of our mission as a research university,” Fos said in the press release. “We remain committed to providing the best learning environment possible for our students.”
Fos said there will be no teachers, instructors or library personnel that will be affected by these cuts.
“This was done in order to minimize the impact on students in the classroom,” Adam Norris, director of public relations at UNO, said.
Christian Coody, a music studies senior at UNO, said that students are aware of these cuts but their bearing on students has been minimal.
“As far as it affecting me, it hasn’t really,” Coody said.
Erin Spath, a film studies freshman at UNO, said she has not been directly affected by these cuts either.
Norris said that positions were eliminated from the business affairs, student affairs and marketing departments. However, he said that cuts were not limited to these departments.
Norris said that these cuts were crucial in order to compensate for the budgetary deficit.
This is not the first instance that UNO has had to make staff cuts in response to budget shortfalls.
“Most recently, UNO eliminated staff positions in the summer of 2012. UNO’s state support has been reduced approximately $24 million since 2008,” Norris said.
This reduced support is attributed to the $700 million cut from Louisiana’s higher education budget since 2008.
Despite these budget concerns, Norris said UNO isn’t the only one in this situation.
“Every single public college and university in the state has had its state funding reduced,” Norris said.
Lauren Stroh can be reached at [email protected]
