CSUF Pickets Protest Impending Layoffs : Budget: School will lay off 34 when operating funds are reduced. Workers suggest cutbacks, but the university rejects the ideas as ineffective.

More than 125 Cal State Fullerton employees picketed the campus administration building Wednesday to protest the imminent layoff of 34 employees as the university girds for at least a 10% cut in state operating funds.

Instead of the school’s laying off vital workers, members of the campus chapter of the California State Employees Assn. urged the university to save money by closing the campus on Fridays and going to a four-day, 10-hour-a-day schedule.

“That would save about $400,000 a year in energy costs,” said April Ottavian, job steward for the employees association chapter and a clerk in the university’s department of admissions and records. Those savings should be used to retain targeted employees, she said.

Sal D. Rinella, the university’s vice president for administration, said the university already cut $550,000 from utility expenses last year, and expects to save another $750,000 in the coming academic year by, among other things, reducing the number of lights and holding heating and cooling of buildings to the minimum.

Closing the campus on Fridays would not save another $400,000, he insisted.

“We have looked at a variety of different options, including closing down the campus on Fridays through the summer, when utility costs are highest,” Rinella said. “We’ve found there is not much savings . . . as long as everybody is still on a 40-hour workweek. You still have to cool the buildings two hours longer on the other four days. And unless individuals actually cut back on the number of hours worked, there isn’t any salary savings.”

The layoffs, most of which are scheduled to take effect Aug. 20, are just one area of cuts planned to balance an anticipated 10% cut in the university’s $110-million operating budget. Campus officials also expect significant cuts in the number of available classes, in overall student enrollment, in the number of contract faculty and employees, and in everything from maintenance to supplies and services.