By Nicole Walton
Marquette, MI –
Northern Michigan University officials updated the campus community Wednesday on plans to deal with an anticipated 15 percent cut in state appropriations.
Proposals by Governor Snyder and the House and Senate all dig deep, and some would penalize schools that raise tuition beyond 7.1 percent. For Northern, 7.1 percent equals $4.6 million.
Next year NMU officials expect a 1.5 percent decline in enrollment, a $6.77 million permanent reduction in base funding, and ballooning health care costs.
At the campus forum officials unveiled a six-piece budget model, including tuition, health care/compensation balancing, enrollment/retention, revenue enhancement/cost savings, work life adjustments, and a "Stop Doing" list.
Provost and Vice-President for Academic Affairs Susan Koch says the University is prepared to reduce faculty and staff positions; however, many cuts were anticipated and some vacant jobs have been left unfilled.
"We've identified at the 2 percent reduction level--if that's where we end up--12 faculty positions," she says. "These positions are all vacant positions or they are term positions. At the higher reduction, at a 4.2 [percent] reduction, we have identified 12 more faculty positions. And these also are all vacant or term positions."
Officials say reductions in staff will be announced by June 2.
Cost-saving measures NMU is implementing include a four-day, 10-hour work week, higher employee contributions for health care, and reducing administrative expenditures.