The University-wide hiring freeze for all non-academic and non-student employees is ending next week for externally funded positions and June 30 for all other University positions.
The Workforce Planning Team, a long term project to examine Cornell’s 7,000 person non-academic workforce will continue to evaluate different ways to meet budgetary constraints.
Henrik N. Dullea ’61, vice president for University relations, identified several ways of meeting those constraints: reducing expenditures through cuts in equipment or personnel and raising revenue through external sources such as the government or tuition.
“Between those options, we must fill the gap,” Dullea said.
Over the next three years there will be a $30 million estimated fiscal shortfall.
On April 15, an estimated ten percent of non-academic jobs, funded by external sources, will resume hiring.
According to Dullea, many positions financed by external sources had already been filled due to an exemption process of the hiring freeze.
On July 1, however, a more dramatic change will take place when departments, schools and programs begin re-filling vacant positions.
The freeze was initiated last Fall due to constraints stemming from a 7.8 percent drop in the University’s endowment for fiscal year 2001 and the fear of a nationwide recession following the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks.
From Nov. 2001 to March 2002 there were 245 new job hires according to Harold D. Craft, Jr., vice president for administration and chief financial officer. Those job hires represent a 63 percent decrease in hiring from the same period last year and a significant savings for the University, according to Craft.
The freeze aimed to reduce short-term budget pressures while initiating a larger program to review staffing, according to the Cornell News Service.
“The freeze was intended to be a first step in a longer-term planning processes examining nonacademic staffing requirements,” said Provost Biddy (Carolyn A.) Martin, as reported by the Cornell News Service.
Those longer-term changes in hiring will continue under the watch of the Workforce Planning Team.
“The units will be more governed by budgetary constraints,” Dullea said. “They will be careful in filling positions as they become vacant.”
The Workforce Planning Team seeks to realize financial savings and increased efficiency through more clearly define roles, responsibilities, performance standards, according to Carolyn Ainslie, vice president for budget and planning.
Archived article by Peter Norlander