A little over $12 million was released through the university realignment plan this academic year, which included the reduction of 125 staff positions, according to a statement by Chancellor Robert Coombe that was distributed to faculty and staff last Wednesday.
The reduction in staff saved the university more than $7 million that would have been paid out in salary and fringe funds. An additional $5 million is expected to be released by reduced expense budgets for a number of departments.
While there are currently no plans for any future reductions in faculty or staff, no guarantees can be made for the future, DU spokesman Jim Berscheidt said.
According to the Chancellor’s statement, the realignment plan is part of an effort to “eliminate redundancy, move resources to critical areas and build… defenses against a weakening economy.” The realignment process is now “largely complete,” the statement said.
The funds released will be used to supplement existing financial aid packages for new and continuing students.
In his statement Coombe said that increases would be made to base level financial aid and that an additional $4 million would be added to the fund for emergency financial aid.
Coombe also announced that part of the money saved through the realignment would be invested in faculty, adding a number of positions in several schools including the Daniels College of Business, the Josef Korbel School of International Studies and the Sturm College of Law. The realignment also included a restructuring of a number of university operational units, according to the statement.
University Advancement has been separated from Alumni Affairs and has been charged with dealing only with major endowments and gifts to DU. University Events has been removed altogether. Event planning units in various buildings will instead report individually to various administrators.
Finally, university marketing efforts have been “substantially reduced” Coombe said, and all technology infrastructure and administrative computing will become the responsibility of University Technology Services.
Both the Chancellor and Berscheidt maintain that DU remains financially sound, despite the faltering economy, and that these changes only serve to put the school in an even stronger position for the future.
“If we meet budgeted enrollments, [DU] should be financially stable for at least the next several years and likely well beyond, even without growth in student numbers and with only modest tuition increases,” Coombe said in his statement to faculty and staff.
According to Coombe, undergraduate applications for the fall are 29 percent higher than they were at the same time last year. Graduate applications have risen 6 percent from last year.
However, the final size of the freshman class and the upper classes will not be known precisely until the second week of classes in the fall
