The Administration announced to the media on June 6, 2023 that Matt Schroeder will present a FY 2024 academic budget to the Board of Trustees on June 22, 2023 with cuts of at least 7% or $28 million. This is old news. This was previously reported in the UT-AAUP newsletter of May 8, 2023 entitled “Current College Budgets Cuts”. As reported in that newsletter, President Postel said there would be academic cuts of $28 million with administrative cuts of $12 million and college cuts of $16 million. There is nothing new in the current announcement by the Administration.
In fact, there is nothing new in announcing academic cuts at UT. There have been academic cuts announced about every year since 2012. The Huron Consulting Report of October 2021 contains a chart on page 51 showing an academic surplus each year from 2012 to 2019. These surpluses range from $95 million in 2012 to $48 million in 2019. The Huron Consulting report is posted on the UT-AAUP website.
In spite of these academic surpluses, both the Jacobs and Gaber Administrations presented annual academic budget cuts from 2012 to 2019 based on declining enrollment. Jacobs also used depreciation to support cuts, a practice discontinued by Gaber. During this time faculty received annual pay increases of about 2%. For three years, there were no pay increases.
Thus there is nothing new in announcing the cuts for 2024. As noted above, these 2024 cuts were actually announced over a month ago. The $16 million in academic cuts for 2024 have already been addressed by the colleges and reported in the UT-AAUP May 8, 2023 newsletter. Some colleges were told that if they did not make the cuts, the Administration would make the cuts for them. The May 8, 2023 newsletter contains a table of cuts for nine of the colleges, totaling $16.858 million. The chart was originally presented in a newsletter on April 24, 2023, and updated on May 8. The cuts to the colleges are always subject to changes by Matt Schroeder and Interim Provost Risa Dickson. The May 8, 2023 newsletter is online at the UT-AAUP website.
Matt Schroeder was Chief of Staff under President Gaber before being appointed VP of Finance by Gaber in 2019. The Academic cuts were continued by him. In early April 2020, he announced that UT was facing a FY 2020 deficit of $30 million which would require pay cuts and furloughs. The campus was in a panicked state. Substantial cuts and furloughs were started in April 2020 and continued until July 3, 2020.
The time line for the 2020 cuts was as follows:
- May 1, 2020: Schroeder presented financials across campus including at Faculty Senate showing a projected operating budget deficit of over $20 million for the fiscal year ending June 30, 2020. It was never explained how the earlier April 2020 projected $30 million deficit became $20 million on May 1, 2020.
- May 31, 2020: Schroeder presented financials to the Board of Trustees showing an actual operating budget surplus of over $30 million for the first 11 months of FY 2020. It was never explained how the May 1, 2020 projected deficit of $20 million became an actual surplus of $30 million on May 31, 2020.
- June 30, 2020: Schroeder presented preliminary year-end financials to the UT Board of Trustees with an operating budget surplus of over $46.7 million for FY 2020. It was never explained how the May 1, 2020 projected deficit of $20 million became an actual surplus of $46.7 million on June 30, 2020, a turn-around of over $66.7 million in two months.
None of the above was ever credibly explained. One explanation presented was that the employee cuts along with other unexplained cuts worked and caused the $66.7 million turn-around. The employee cuts
were less than $2 million. About 75% of the cuts ($1.433 million) were inflicted on the CWA employees, some of our lowest paid employees with average salaries of about $44,000. In any case, Schroeder’s projections were not accurate and the CWA cuts (and pain) were unnecessary.
Schroeder’s academic operating budget projections also missed the mark in 2021 and 2022. The year-end actuals for both 2021 and 2022 substantially exceeded his projections. Nonetheless, there was cost cutting for all the colleges for both years with threats of a reduction-in-force (RIF). Schroeder stated to the Faculty Senate on November 1, 2020 that because of enrollment decline UT is overstaffed by 300 faculty.
We are waiting for Schroeder’s 2023 financials to be presented to the Board of Trustees on June 22, 2023. These will be for 11 months through May 31, 2023 along with the 2024 budget. We hope the Board of Trustees knows the difference between actuals and projections. We hope the Board of Trustees knows Schroeder’s track record on projections.
Schroeder will present the 2023 financials and the 2024 budget to the Board of Trustees in their “meeting packet” to be discussed in Executive Session. He started this practice several meetings ago to prevent the UT-AAUP and others from taking screen shots. The UT-AAUP will request these financials and other information under the Ohio Public Records Act. The lack of transparency by Schroeder along with his annual cuts is not new. It is déjà vuall over again.
UT-AAUP Executive Board