Re: Moving forward together
To: All employees
Dec. 14, 2020
 
Dear Campus Community,

Over the past several months we have continued to make decisions that align with our core principles to put people first, support instruction, and enhance research. The campus leadership and I recognize how hard it has been for many of you in these difficult times, especially when we are all asked to do so much more with limited resources. Given these considerations, the thoughtful feedback you provided and your courage under these circumstances, I believe it is prudent to take a more strategic and supportive approach to ensure our future financial health rather than one that impacts your earnings at this time. Therefore, I have decided not to implement a salary and time reduction program for the remainder of the current fiscal year.

Although we have elected not to implement this austerity measure, the decision should not be taken as a signal of an immediately positive financial future for our campus. It is important to understand that the pandemic, along with our prior and current financial decision making, has generated significant fiscal impacts. Our current revenue sources do not align with our expenditures and structural problems will need to be addressed moving forward. This requires a much broader financial strategy as well as better budgeting practices for the campus. Salary and time savings should always be viewed as a last resort. Therefore, we need to focus on our cost reduction measures and develop a more complete financial strategy that is focused on the long-term financial viability of the campus.

Over the course of the spring semester, we will track our progress toward meeting our savings goals and continue to increase our financial responsibility awareness efforts. This will include dialogue and engagement and the reassessment of our needs at the end of the fiscal year. If we are not successful in reducing our spending by the end of the spring semester, we will revisit the model selected by the campus (Model 3), evaluate its efficacy in helping meet our financial goals, and consider its possible implementation for the upcoming fiscal year. Therefore, it is extremely important that as a community we work together to lower costs to ensure that we best support each other through these difficult times.

Many of you will recall the resilience of the university through the last recession. We will persevere through the current challenges. I ask that you continue current cost saving and efficiency efforts over the months to come as we emerge from the pandemic. Thank you for your service to our university, to each other, and to not losing faith that we will be together again soon.

Sincerely,

Juan Sánchez Muñoz, Ph.D.
Chancellor
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