Temple plans 5 pct. budget cut, salary freeze

To deal with declining state revenue, Temple University will cut its budget next year by 5 percent - about $40 million - and freeze salaries for nonunion employees, president Ann Weaver Hart said last night in an e-mail to employees and other members of the university community.

The university also has pulled its contract offer to the faculty union off the table and is expected to submit a less-expensive proposal.

And it is scaling back in many other areas, including its planned 125th anniversary celebration, Hart said.

"There is no indication as to when the economic crisis will abate or how long it will be before a recovery takes full effect," she wrote. "Additional steps must be taken to prepare for the effects of the recession continuing into the next fiscal year."

A university official said a committee would look at the budget and make recommendations on reducing spending.

Hart is the latest area university president to announce cuts through a letter to the school community.

Last week, Pennsylvania State University president Graham Spanier warned in an e-mail of dire economic circumstances and the need to reduce spending.

Penn State received a cut of $21.2 million, about 6 percent, in its state appropriation this year and has seen a decrease in investment earnings, he said. The school would respond, he said, by freezing nonunion salaries next year for "the first time in modern history," delaying construction projects, and cutting spending.

The university would not resort to tuition and fee increases next year, other than those already planned, because students already are under financial duress, he said.

"Students are already approaching our Office of Student Aid in record numbers asking for additional assistance," he wrote.

At Temple, Hart said the state was to give the university $190 million toward its $775 million budget for operations (not including the health system).

After state revenues weakened, however, Harrisburg sent $11 million less than promised. More cuts could come before the year is out and the next fiscal year could be worse, Hart said.

Temple also has experienced a drop in endowment earnings.

Still, some projects will continue as scheduled.

Construction projects - including the building of the Boyer College of Music and Dance and the School of Medicine, and the renovation of the Baptist Temple - will not be affected. The move-in for the Fox School of Business and Management's Alter Hall and the Tyler School of Art's new home on the main campus also will stay on track, she said.

Arthur Hochner, president of the Temple Association of University Professionals and an associate professor of human resources management, said union leaders had been wondering what the university would do since it pulled its offer off the table last week. He noted that union members have not received a raise for the current fiscal year.

"We're convinced that they simply don't want to divert their money from their cherished projects to pay their faculty," Hochner said. The contract expired Oct. 15.

Some area private schools also are feeling a pinch from the downturn in the economy, and they also are planning spending cuts.

At Bryn Mawr College, officials foresee cutting the budget a total of 5 percent over the next three years, president Jane McAuliffe told the college community in an e-mail last month.

Haverford College president Stephen Emerson last fall told staff and students that belt-tightening would be necessary. "Over the next weeks and months, each of us will need to consider seriously what expenditures are absolutely essential for this year and next year and which can be deferred if we must," he wrote.