CARBONDALE, Ill. (AP) - Nearly 80 employees are losing their jobs and dozens more could be affected as Southern Illinois University Carbondale struggles financially due to the ongoing state budget impasse, according to university officials.
Interim Chancellor Brad Colwell wrote a letter to the campus community Wednesday saying that officials have been trying to identify $19 million in permanent reductions since March, The Southern Illinoisan (https://bit.ly/2qKbLfr ) reported.
He said they’ve also been trying to account for the first of 10 annual payments to reimburse funds spent this year that the university didn’t receive because of the impasse.
“We built much of our permanent reduction on vacant positions in order to avoid layoffs, but unfortunately, layoffs and the non-renewal of some contracts are unavoidable,” Colwell wrote in the memo. “Decisions affecting members of our community are deeply painful to all of us. We will do all we can to assist those employees who are affected.”
Colwell said the campus expects to give over 50 civil service employees layoff notices. Two non-tenure-track faculty members have received layoff notices, and nearly 25 more were informed their contracts wouldn’t be renewed.
The nonrenewal of a contract is not technically a layoff, but the result is the same for employees who are affected. Most of them hold those teaching jobs full-time, or close to full-time, as their primary position.
Another nearly 100 civil service employees will also receive notice that their status with the university may be affected through a “bumping process,” according to Colwell’s memo.
University spokeswoman Rae Goldsmith said in an email that individuals with seniority can “bump” into the position of someone with less seniority according to the labor contract that covers the school’s civil service workers.
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Information from: Southern Illinoisan, https://www.southernillinoisan.com
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