 Faced
with a fifth straight year of budget cuts, Appalachian State University
is trying to cope by eliminating vacant positions, Vice Chancellor
for Business Affairs Jane P. Helm said.
The North Carolina General Assembly budget reduced Appalachian’s
funds by 3.15 percent permanently, on top of another 0.75 percent
temporary cut, according to information from the office of Business
Affairs.
“This means that we’ve been continued to be cut over a
period of years,” Helm said. “A one year cut, that doesn’t
really bring us to our knees, but when it’s year after year
that we have both permanent and temporary cuts, there’s a problem.”
“At the same time, we have more students coming in,” she
said. “We get money from the enrollment increase and it offsets
the cuts, but not really. Basically what it boils down to is that
we’re accepting more students without more funding.”
Helm said Appalachian was trying not to lay off any employees, instead
targeting vacant positions and travel equipment cost.
“For example, we may not fill an open groundskeeper position,
because we have a lot of groundskeepers already. Now does this begin
to hurt? Yes it does. You can do that, but after awhile you notice
that the grounds start not to look so good,” she said.
“You can’t get enough to meet these cuts without giving
back money for vacant positions, so that’s always where we
start,” Helm said.
She said individual vice-chancellors decided how the cuts would
be spread, but administrators were trying to spread cuts evenly.
“I don’t think we’d permit one department to suffer
more than another, I think its more of an across the board suffering
process,” Helm said.
The cuts, applied to universities around the state, mean staff members
must balance increasing fees with no raise in their salaries.
“It’s been three years since we’ve had any significant
pay increase,” Tina R. Parlier, president-elect of Staff Council,
said. “That coupled with increases in parking fees, increases
in health care costs, that does contribute to a lower morale, and
that is something we’re concerned about.”
“I think the administrators here are aware of the problem,
but sometimes things come down from the state level and their hands
are effectively tied,” Parlier said.
While not receiving a raise this year, staff members will get a
one-time $550 bonus.
“While we are receiving that bonus, that’s not part of
our base salary so that’s not something that goes into computing
retirement or really pushes us along any further,” Parlier
said.
Parlier said plans were being made along with the Human Resources
office and administrators to do appreciation activities, such as
scholarships to staff members’ families to raise morale among
staff.
“The big three problems that need to be improved on right now
are parking, salary increases, and better health care at a manageable
price,” Parlier said.
“If you talk to any staff member here, you’ll hear at
least two of those three issues. I think the atmosphere at Appalachian
is very positive and it’s a wonderful place to work, but some
of the practical issues sometimes make it difficult to work here.” |
