43 CSUF Employees, Including 8 Faculty, Given Layoff Notices

More than 40 Cal State Fullerton employees, including eight faculty members, have received layoff notices this week as the university girds for an uncertain budget year that is likely to mean at least $10 million in state funding cuts.

University officials said Tuesday that an additional 50 contract instructors have been told their services would not be renewed for the coming academic year, and 50 more have been retained on an unprecedented short-term contract through Sept. 30.

If there are enough funds and enough student demand for classes, the university may be able to extend contracts for those instructors whose services are deemed “essential.”

“What it means is that students will have longer waits for some services,” said Jerry Keating, director of public affairs for the Fullerton campus, which endured cuts of $16 million last year.

Depending on student demand for courses in the fall semester, the remaining faculty may well have to take on heavier course loads, university officials said.

It is not clear whether further layoffs will be necessary if state funding for the 20-campus California State University system is slashed below current projections of about $100 million, as appears possible. Another factor will be the size of student fee increases. The CSU Board of Trustees has voted for a 40% hike in student fees, but final approval is needed from legislators, some of whom have balked at the size of the increase.

There is also legislation pending that would authorize a so-called “golden handshake” to encourage longtime CSU employees to take early retirement. How many Fullerton faculty and staff would apply is uncertain, university officials said.

“We still don’t have a budget for the state; we don’t have a budget for the CSU system and we don’t have a budget for the campus,” Keating said.

Layoff notices were mailed to 43 employees over the long holiday weekend. While Keating would not identify them by name or specific areas, he said seven of the eight faculty members are retirees who have continued to teach on a limited basis. The eighth does not have tenure at the university.

The remainder include professional and support staff members from across the 25,000-student campus, including two supervisory-level employees. All have received at least 45 days notice.

Over the last several years, the university has lost an estimated 400 positions that have not been filled as employees left or retired. Otherwise, Keating said, the number of layoff notices to date would have been far higher.

Across the county at UC Irvine, about 30 to 35 people have been laid off since early June, and there could be 20 or 30 more employees affected, said Linda Granell, UCI’s director of communications.

No faculty members are affected as part of the university’s budget-cutting strategy to preserve academic programs as its first priority. But management and staff have been affected elsewhere on campus.

Layoffs to date include: 11 employees in the College of Medicine, 12 in university administration and business services, five in university advancement, and several more in the athletic department.

The highest-ranking employee to face layoff has been Terry Jones, an assistant vice chancellor for university development. Jones, whose last day was June 22, ran the university’s capital campaign, which raised about $100 million in private support for university projects over four years.

Granell said the university also expects to eliminate another 30 contract positions for maintenance workers and groundskeepers. These are not considered “university employees,” and as such, are not included in the layoff tally.