UGA Furloughs

Red and Black Reports:

University President Michael Adams was given the authority to furlough any and all employees, including faculty, should the need arise, by the Board of Regents during its meeting in Atlanta Tuesday.

"This gives our presidents the flexibility to make furlough decisions for their respective institutions, if the state revenue situation continues to worsen," said Chancellor Erroll B. Davis Jr.

In March UGA administrators sought the "flexibility" to furlough employees by asking the BOR to approve a clause in employment contracts, University Provost Arnett Mace said.

"We are asking the Board of Regents to include language [permitting furloughs] in contracts just in case we would need to exercise that [power]," Mace said at the time.

Davis noted that the board's action changes a situation in which one fourth of the University System's approximately 40,000 employees are excluded by contract from furloughs, but these employees account for approximately one-half of all personnel costs.

"Currently our faculty cannot be furloughed because of legal contracts we sign with them on an annual basis," Davis said. "The board's action allows us to insert language into all faculty contracts that clearly outlines that furloughs are a possibility and to which the signer of a contract agrees."

Scary stuff for those of us who work the University. I hope that furloughs will be a last ditch effort, and that they will take into consideration who they furlough. I hope that they only furlough people making above $60k a year, not people making less. The economic impact of being furloughed a day between low-salary jobs and mid-level salary jobs is not negligible.