I hope that you had a great Fourth of July, because the coming year is likely to have some budget fireworks.

I am writing to ask faculty and librarians to seriously engage in the budget process to shape the likely budget cuts in ways that minimize their negative effects.  If we just let senior administrators own this process, we are much more likely to see decisions with unintended consequences that needlessly damage valuable programs.  This is a request for you to work with your department, your chair, your dean, the campus administration and the MSP in finding a reasonable path through this coming budget process.

The Massachusetts FY10 budget has now been signed by the Governor and provides enough money to nearly level fund UMass for the coming year.  To achieve that funding, nearly ALL of the federal stimulus money was used, leaving almost none for next year.  Unless there is more revenue in the state, we are facing serious budget problems one year from now (potentially $25 million or more.  As a point of reference, all MSP members’ salaries total about $105 million).  The Chancellor sent out a message a few weeks ago describing the dire budgets we face, and suggested that the Faculty Senate and some task forces serve to develop plans for dealing with the cuts.

I suggest that the faculty at large seriously educate themselves about budgets affecting curriculum, staffing, and program delivery in their units.  Though it may seem that cutting specific staff positions, letting faculty positions remain unfilled, and cutting support for teaching and research are the only options when viewed from the Dean’s or Provost’s office, living with the consequences of those cuts will fall to the faculty and students.  It is the responsibility of the faculty to contribute vigorously to the budget process.  More than anyone, faculty understand the details of the effects of particular cuts, and to the extent that cuts can be directed to have the smallest possible effects.  Faculty need to describe the best plans, strongly justify their ideas, and fight to affect policy to bring those ideas to reality.

A basic truth about the budget process is that the tired adage “we just have to do more with less” becomes literally impossible at some point.  UMass has faced many rounds of budget cuts in the past 20 years.  In that time we have become more cost efficient in the delivery of undergraduate education, and effective at winning research funds.  However, at some point cuts in faculty, staff and programmatic support mean that delivery of quality teaching and research is diminished.  At some point you get less with less.  In the past 5 years, the MSP led the effort for the Amherst 250 plan, that was intended to increase the number of  tenure-system faculty by 250 in a five year period.  At its zenith, the university managed to increase the tenure system faculty by 57.  Plans for ongoing faculty hiring are very likely to fall by the wayside in the coming year(s).  At the same time, plans for increasing the size of the student body are fully in place.

We must be honest about what we can do with the resources we have.  When cuts result in the real loss of teaching or research capacity, we need to recognize that.  We, the faculty at UMass, need to guide this upcoming budget process to minimize the negative effects.  We also must be vigilant about scrutinizing UMass spending not directly related to teaching and research -- especially money related to the Presidents office, construction, and other items that should be suspended during this budget crisis.

Most importantly, we must be vocal advocates for revenue corrections in the state.  If the state had kept the income tax rate at 5.95%, rather than reducing it to 5.3%, an additional $9 billion could have tucked away in the past 6 years, an amount equal to the two year revenue loss the state is currently experiencing.  Our economy clearly has a feast lean eating or famine quality, and surviving famine requires building reserves in the good years. 

Finally, we must convincingly make the case for public higher education in Massachusetts.  We are progressively being privatized to the exclusion of a growing number of the state’s citizens and the detraction of the quality of our efforts.  Our mission as the flagship campus of the public university system is to perform world-class research and provide an outstanding education to our next generation of graduate and undergraduate students.  We are incredibly cost-efficient in our mission, and very good at it.  Massachusetts deserves and needs our efforts to thrive.  We must be vocal advocates for our enterprise.

The MSP is creating a forum for sharing information and commenting on the insights and ideas of your colleagues.  Broad participation will help assure the best possible outcome for UMass faculty, librarians, staff and students.

Randall Phillis

MSP President

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