Dear Colleagues:

After the Town Hall meeting yesterday, I met with the senior leadership of the Faculty Senate to discuss some of the issues raised.  Some quick clarification is needed on the following:

1. The magnitude of our budget gap needs to be put in perspective.  The $20 million gap is approximately 4% of our total annual budget of $500 million.  Current efforts will hopefully lead to not only great efficiencies, but most importantly, help reduce escalating costs for our students and rising student debt loads.    The current budget gap is the result of several factors including: a) a steady decline in enrollment, b) a loss of $44 million dollars in state funding over the past 6 years, c) a loss of stimulus dollars and surplus cash funds that helped fill the gap in previous years, and d) the lack of any changes in our configuration despite the significant loss of state dollars. 
2.  Part-time instruction budgets have not been eliminated.  We simply are putting a process in place to review and approve part-time instruction.  We do not currently have a mechanism for monitoring part-time expenditures, which are approximately $3.8 million per year.  This is coupled with a request for all deans to develop workload polices in collaboration with chairs, program directors and faculty.  We need to be strategic in our use of part-time instruction, particularly given the significant annual investment.
3. The need for a consistent Q&A venue for faculty, staff and students in order to improve overall communication.  Accordingly, I will be making use of the Faculty Senate anonymous suggestion box:

http://www.memphis.edu/facultysenate/suggestionbox.php

And the Staff Senate suggestion box:

 http://www.memphis.edu/staffsenate/suggestions.php

 The Faculty Senate Executive Committee will compile the questions on a monthly basis and I will post responses on my blog.  Hopefully, this will prove helpful in terms of accurate and timely communication, all consistent with our commitment to transparency.

4. The need for additional Town Hall meetings. We will continue to host Town Hall meetings over the course of the years. Hopefully, this will become a routine part of University function. 

 Thank you to those that attended our first Town Hall session and the Executive Committee of the Faculty Senate.  Go Tigers!

 Best Regards, David