Dear Colleagues:

I hope this note finds you well as we approach a new year.  As indicated in my last correspondence, I wanted to provide an update on our budgeting process for the 2014-2015 academic year and beyond prior to the holiday break.  I have been working with the academic leadership team (i.e. deans, chairs and directors), as well as with the new budget working group.  I am now confident that we will be able to resolve our immediate budget challenge without any tenured or tenure-line faculty layoffs, something I wanted to communicate quickly and clearly.  This will be possible only because of the creative and thoughtful work of many of our colleagues. We will be able to close the budget gap with a combination of efforts, including currently open positions, retirements, and normal turnover and attrition over the next two academic years.  Combined with a range of efforts geared toward streamlined administration and improved efficiency across campus, this approach will not only help us move to the configuration and structure necessary to grow in coming years, these changes will allow us to respond in flexible and effective fashion to future opportunities.  As I recently shared with the Faculty Senate Executive Committee, this budget working group will be a permanent fixture, one that will continue its work on a regular basis.  

I want to remind you that we have approached this problem in strategic fashion.  We continue to hire vigorously in targeted programs and we have insulated critical areas from reductions that would impair their ability to deliver our mission and grow in coming years.  In particular, we have taken special effort to protect and invest in our research mission.  The net result is not only protecting our core teaching and research missions, but strengthening our foundation for growth in the next five years. Despite enrollment declines over the past three years, I am increasingly confident that our broad-based enrollment and retention efforts will help us grow in coming years.  The support at the program, department and college levels has been nothing short of remarkable.

We have yet to make definitive decisions about several organizational and structural initiatives.  There is no doubt we need to improve our administrative efficiency, an effort that will require some organizational changes. Those efforts will continue to be studied, with updates in the near future.   Regardless, though, we will not experience tenure-line faculty layoffs, something that I know has been a concern of many.  This is only one piece of the challenge we face, one that is at the heart of our mission.  I will reach out quickly as decisions are made regarding our general configuration and structure, particularly on the administrative side.  I anticipate some of these decisions will be made in late January to mid-February. 

I wanted to share some good news prior to the holiday break.  Thank you for your hard work, dedication and commitment to the University of Memphis.  I wish you and yours the best for the holiday season and the coming new year.

 Best Regards,

David