The College will lay off six additional employees while reducing the working hours of six others this month, and will potentially eliminate up to 30 additional positions later this year, acting Provost and Dean of the Faculty Carol Folt and Senior Vice President Steven Kadish announced in a campus-wide e-mail detailing budget reduction initiatives on Thursday. Although modifications to the College's health benefits will be a "big piece of the changes," according to Kadish, he declined to disclose the changes to the College's benefits plan in an interview with The Dartmouth, saying that the modifications will be announced next week.
In the e-mail, Folt and Kadish also outlined several "administrative restructuring team" projects, which are expected to save $25 million in 2012 fiscal year budget.
The layoffs and reductions in employee working hours are one part of three new revenue-saving initiatives the College is implementing in order to address the $100 million budget gap for fiscal years 2011 and 2012. The initiatives include reductions in force and reduction in hours, benefits changes and administrative restructuring team projects, according to the e-mail.
None of the six employees who will be laid off are union employees, Kadish said.
The College will continue to provide the currently available severance package to those whose positions are eliminated, according to Kadish.
Kadish estimated that the combination of reductions in the College workforce and reductions in working hours will save around half a million dollars.
"I feel very confident that we're positioned to succeed with achieving the $50 million dollar goal for this coming year," Kadish said.
As many as 30 additional positions will be eliminated later this year "by specific project and as needed," Kadish said.
"We're trying to do this thoughtfully and carefully and we really are trying to minimize the impact on the staff here," he said. "As we more thoroughly develop our design and implementation plans, we'll know more specifically about layoffs."
With the addition of the three new savings initiatives, College officials expect to account for 80 percent of the $100 million budget reductions that must be made by the end of fiscal year 2012, according to the e-mail.
Savings gained through changes to the benefits plan offered by the College to faculty and staff may allow the College to avoid furloughs, which would lay off workers temporarily, and salary reductions, Kadish said.
"[There will be] a graduated impact," Kadish said. "The lowest-paid staff will be affected less than the higher-paid faculty and staff."
Thirteen million dollars of the $100 million budget reduction plan announced in February were designated as savings from changes to benefits and compensation expenses, The Dartmouth previously reported.
The changes to the benefits programs will update the College's health plan, which has remained unchanged for over 20 years, and put Dartmouth in line with its peer institutions, according to Kadish.
A series of administrative restructuring team projects seeks to improve services by making finances, facilities, information technology, procurement and communications more efficient, the e-mail said.
The six administrative restructuring team projects already underway include coordinating information technology infrastructure, improving procurement processes and services, creating financial teams in order to streamline administrative transactions, enhancing sponsored research infrastructure, developing coordinated communications strategies and restructuring facilities operations, according to the Strategic Budget Reduction and Investment web site.
Savings from changes to facilities, financial polices and procurement will represent "well more than half" of the $25 million that the administrative restructuring team projects are expected to save, Kadish said.
By more aggressively seeking lower construction costs, the College has been able to take advantage of the down market in construction, according to Linda Snyder, project sponsor for restructuring of facilities operations.
The College has been able to reduce the costs of constructing the Life Sciences building from $135 million to $127.5 million through "creative and careful" practices in construction procurement, Snyder said.
Consolidating cross-campus purchases of supplies will also help to reduce costs, Kadish said.
"People are purchasing the same product from different vendors at different prices," Kadish said. "We're not taking any advantage of the opportunity to do a bigger buy and get a price break."
Although an additional $20 million remains to be accounted for in the budget reductions, Kadish said he is confident that the College will meet the $100 million goal in planned savings in the 15 months before the 2012 fiscal year starts.
"I am so proud and really pleased with the unbelievable work that staff and faculty have done in a really short time," Kadish told The Dartmouth. "We're at a turning point of now moving from idea and concept into implementation."
The changes announced in the e-mail are a continuation of current budget reduction efforts implemented by the College. These include the reinstatement of a loan expectation for students with family incomes over $75,000 for the Class of 2015, a freeze on hiring with limited exceptions, and staff reduction through layoffs, retirements and the elimination of vacant positions, according to the e-mail.
