Faculty and staff will be hit with the equivalent of up to a 3 percent pay cut as the University begins to implement furlough days approved by the Board of Regents during a meeting last week.

The six mandatory furlough days – compounded with changes to employee health insurance – are part of the Regents’ plan to cut the budget by 4 percent. The plan stems from Governor Sonny Perdue’s request for all state agencies to come up with three budget reduction proposals at levels of 4, 6 and 8 percent.

The six days of furloughs will save the University about $7.2 million in salary expenditures, according to the University’s budget reduction plan submitted to the Regents. But the University still hasn’t announced the specific details of furlough scheduling and execution, said Tom Jackson, vice president for public affairs, in a phone interview last week.

“The entire budget – including a plan for furloughs – will be addressed [at University President Michael Adams' budget update] on Thursday,” Jackson said.

The Regents will allow individual institutions to impose additional furlough days if either the 6 or 8 percent cut is approved. However, the University’s budget reduction plan does not call for additional furlough days at the higher percentage levels, Jackson said.

The Regents also authorized an increase in the $100 mandatory student fee – to $250 – if the 8 percent tier is chosen.

“There’s some flexibility at the 6 and 8 percent levels,” said John Vanchella, director of strategic communications for the Regents, in a phone interview last week. “They will require the System working with the institutions to make these cuts.”

But even the six furlough days are causing some uncertainty around campus. Some professors are already wondering how the administration will enact the furloughs.

“Logistics are a concern at a place this big,” said Cory Buxton, an associate professor in the College of Education. “[The furloughs] affect so many people. How do you manage the logistics?”

Scott Angle, dean of the College of Agricultural and Environmental Sciences, said he knows of some potential hiccups in scheduling furlough days within his school.

“We work a lot with animals, and animals need care every day,” Angle said in a phone interview Friday. “We’ll need some flexibility for animal care.”

He also mentioned the college’s close association with the public school system as another possible obstacle. Faculty working with public schools could not be furloughed on days they needed to be in the school system, he said.

But Angle said he understood the budget reduction measure.

“It’s important to understand that furloughs are probably preventing layoffs,” he said. “While it’s a very hard decision, it’s probably the best that can be made given the circumstances and the hard times.”

Buxton expressed a similar opinion.

“It’s a more equal way to go about [budget reductions] than to have people lose their jobs,” he said.

But layoffs may still be required.

The University’s budget reduction plan calls for no layoffs at the 4 percent level, but if the Governor requires more significant budget cuts, layoffs are a part of the plan – 136 employees at the 6 percent tier and 229 for an 8 percent reduction.

These layoffs would add to the 343 faculty, staff, graduate assistant and student worker positions the University has already eliminated through attrition – a process by which vacant positions are left unfilled. Even more positions would be eliminated under each of the reduction plans.

The loss of faculty positions will result in courses being taught less frequently or not at all, documents submitted to the Regents state.

“In the longer term, we expect the best and brightest students may choose to leave Georgia to attend college elsewhere given the impact of these reductions on the quality of UGA’s educational programs,” the documents state.

Scott Dougan, an associate professor of cellular biology, said he could foresee the effects the loss of faculty positions will have on students.

“Anything that increases class sizes is going to be hard on the students,” Dougan said in a phone interview last week. “I’m teaching a class this fall with over 130 students and one TA. It’s tough. Enrollment keeps going up and faculty numbers are steady or go down.”

Enrollment has grown by nearly 2,000 students since 2002, but the University has lost 50 full-time professors. This means the University will be forced to rely more heavily on part-time faculty.

And the elimination of faculty positions isn’t the only thing increasing class sizes as budget cuts go into effect.

The budget reduction plan requires cutting 352 course sections to reach the 4 percent reduction level. This number increases at the higher tiers – up to 877 course sections for the 8 percent plan.

“We have been able to maintain generally the same number of course sections over the past five years – despite the financial crisis,” Jackson said. “[Offering fewer course sections] could hinder student progress toward a degree, but I don’t think we’re there right now.”

Jackson said the University has tried to shield students from feeling the effects of the financial crisis.

“There are a few places where it has been unavoidable – extra fee charges, hours in the [Miller Learning Center] – but overall students have been shielded,” he said. “However, as [the budget crisis] gets deeper it’s going to be very hard to continue to do that.”