Embattled President of San Diego State Relents on Layoffs : Finances: He moves to relieve tensions on campus, but says the faculty cutbacks have only been postponed for a year.

In an attempt to defuse tension on campus, San Diego State President Thomas Day announced Monday that he will postpone layoffs of 146 tenured and tenure-track professors for the academic year.

Day said he will try to use California State University reserve funds set aside by system Chancellor Barry Munitz instead of laying off faculty members this year to cope with budget cuts.

“I think it’s a very important thing to do,” Day told the executive committee of the San Diego State Academic Senate, adding that Munitz said he “would receive favorably” a request for the money.

Day said he has instructed his vice presidents and academic deans to plan the spring semester class schedule as if the layoffs and elimination of nine academic departments he ordered were postponed.

But Day warned that the layoffs will go into effect on June 30, 1993, unless the faculty comes up with alternatives to $12 million in cuts that are acceptable to him.

Day’s remarks did not sit well Monday with some faculty members who want the campus president to start from scratch in planning for a smaller campus, without the threat of layoffs hanging over them.

In May, Day announced plans to eliminate, beginning this month, nine departments and to fire almost 200 professors and lecturers. After a torrent of protest from faculty groups, Day agreed in August to use more than $5 million in library, laboratory and other equipment budgets to postpone his plans until the spring.

But professors voted 55.7% to 42.4% at an unprecedented general faculty meeting on Aug. 28 to demand that Cal State trustees fire Day because of his handling of budget-cutting decisions.

Day’s announcement Monday was an attempt to re-establish a dialogue with the faculty, and had strong support from Munitz, who has said that Day must work to restore an “active consultation process.”

Munitz has said that Day’s bitter medicine for his campus may be necessary, “but you can’t (have changes) at an academic institution without the faculty having a feeling of participation.”

Cal State trustees will meet today and Wednesday, and will discuss the San Diego State faculty vote on Day.