Day Says He Won’t Rethink SDSU Layoffs

There will be no reconsideration of layoff notices sent this week to 193 San Diego State University employees, including 145 tenured and probationary-tenure professors, SDSU President Thomas Day told faculty members Thursday.

But, depending on the state’s budget situation, he said, the timing of their dismissals could be ameliorated.

Despite growing concern among key professors over the process Day used to make $11.5 million in cuts last month, including the elimination of nine academic departments, the president held fast to his decision during a meeting with the executive committee of the Academic Senate.

“I am not prepared to rescind layoff notices,” Day said in answering questions about whether he might instead make most if not all of the cuts in what is loosely called infrastructure: library books, magazines and lab equipment, travel and faculty leave time, athletics, student health and other non-direct classroom activities.

“To set the clock back and start all over again is not practical, just not practical,” he said.

Day has said he will consider such infrastructure cuts if the amount of required reductions grows beyond the $11.5 million. But he considers wholesale cutting of infrastructure--what he calls “burning the furniture”--a dangerous action that threatens the university in the long term.

Day did say Thursday that he will look for money with which laid-off professors might be paid for a semester or two to continue teaching courses needed by students who now find themselves in departments scheduled for shutdown.

But even that hoped-for period of transition depends on what happens with the state budget in Sacramento. While Day and other California State University campus presidents have been planning for an 8% cut--on top of the 15% slash taken last year--the actual percentage could be as high as 15% again this year.

“The picture is clouded,” Day said laconically, noting that CSU Chancellor Barry Munitz has promised no tenured faculty layoffs for at least a year if budget cuts can be held to 6% and a generous early-retirement bonus plan passes the Legislature to entice many senior professors to leave the system.

“But, reading what I do, I think that the chances of a 6% scenario are very small,” Day said, although some sort of savings from an early-retirement plan appear on the horizon.

Nevertheless, the senate executive committee passed a series of resolutions Thursday asking Day to make cuts in the infrastructure to cover the initial 8% budget reductions.

The resolutions criticize Day for “misinterpreting” a major Academic Senate document passed in January that called for “deep and narrow” academic cuts in the event of additional budget reductions, and not across-the-board actions.

The resolutions will be forwarded to a special meeting of the full Academic Senate on June 29, by which time the magnitude of the state budget cuts may be known.