December 03, 2008
To the UT Family,
First let me say: Keep them coming. You have really stepped forward when asked to do so by offering up your suggestions and ideas on how the University can save money. More than 500 suggestions have come to us and of these, more than 100 were submitted via UTALK, the Internet feature that allows you to post a question, comment or suggestion online. All of these have value to us as we continue to hash out a plan to get through these tough times, and the more we receive the better off we are. Every bit helps.
On Wednesday in Nashville I reported your efforts to the Board of Trustees' Committee on Effectiveness and Efficiency for the Future, an effort to ensure the long-term health of the University. The initiative is part of a three-pronged approach to guide us through the current economic times and put us in a position of strength once the economy rebounds. The other two pieces include coordinating strategic plans at our campuses and using specific cuts that protect the University’s core mission of education, research and outreach.
With this approach in mind, we expect to receive a firm budget reduction figure from the State in mid-December, and our plans call for presenting a proposed UT budget to Gov. Phil Bredesen in January. Multiple budget-reduction scenarios are being drawn up at campuses to emphasize strategic cuts rather than across-the-board reductions.
While the Effectiveness and Efficiency initiative was not created to deal with our current budget crunch, it has already generated actions that are trimming costs and minimizing impacts. Among steps the University has taken are hiring restrictions, reduced operating expenditures and lowered energy consumption. We are also reviewing all programs for possible consolidation or elimination and looking at all vacant positions statewide that could be potentially dissolved.
Those newly undertaken efforts, however, can only carry us so far because the financial losses are simply too large. You may have heard me talk about our baseline budget, which is the cost of running the University. We are trimming down the overhead but must retain enough money to maintain the high quality of our faculty, programs and facilities. Sooner or later we must look elsewhere for additional revenue, and we are doing that now.
By continuing to contribute your ideas you can help minimize those potential impacts. We are all working to find new and aggressive ways to save money and to continue to offer the same superior educational experience.
As I said above, keep the ideas flowing by visiting UTALK at http://president.tennessee.edu/utalk/
We are confronting this challenge head on, and the spirit of hope and the sense of future are forged by the bonds of working together. Those bonds carry us forward.
- John D. Petersen
