Claremont's University Consortium has announced cuts for the coming academic year. Am I just being cynical or does it seem as if they annouce the cuts every summer? Which, is of course, not to say that things shouldn't be cut. They ought to. Contra Costa Times reports the following:
CLAREMONT - The Claremont University Consortium plans to cut its 2008-09 operating budget by 9.5 percent for a savings of $2.4 million.
The plan includes an involuntary reduction of 10 staff positions as well as a voluntary early retirement program.
The early retirement program has been made available to staff members who are 55-years-old or older and have 10 or more years of continuous service with the consortium.
"Losing these valued colleagues will be a very personal and professional challenge to the employees of the CUC," said Robert A. Walton, chief executive officer for the consortium.
"However, the CUC remains committed to delivering quality academic and business services to these outstanding colleges even in these challenging financial times."
The consortium gives business and academic services to the two graduate and five undergraduate institutions that make up the Claremont Colleges.
In the early retirement program, qualified employees elected to retire on June 30, according to a Claremont University Consortium news release.
There were 30 employees who accepted the program. The positions will not be filled throughout the 2009-10 academic year and until the completion of the program's payout to the employees, officials said.
Additional budget reduction efforts included reducing costs for contracted and travel services, merging consortium business and budget office functions as well as senior management pay reductions.
"Wherever practical, vacant positions will remain open until financial conditions significantly improve," consortium officials said.
Forty positions will be either held vacant or eliminated starting June 30.
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