The Staff Senate dispelled rumors regarding the possibility of furloughs, temporary staff layoffs, at its meeting Wednesday afternoon.
OU officials Nick Hathaway and Julius Hilburn informed the staff representatives of the current budget situation and received feedback from them.
"The university has no plans for furloughs at this time," said Hathaway, vice president of administration and executive affairs.
Monthly shortfalls in the university's budget have been made up through the use of reserve funds. However, those funds are running thin, and the university might have to come up with options to pay for future budget reductions, Hathaway said.
One furlough day would save the university $700,000, according to Hathaway.
"It's strictly a function of what funding is available, or whether we have to take additional funding cuts from the state," said Hilburn, director of the Office of Human Resources. "If we do, then furloughs are one of the options that we're going to have to consider seriously."
Rumors have been spread that if furloughs occur, they will happen over spring break when no classes are being held. If the furlough days are necessary, having them over spring break is one possibility, Hathaway said. No plans to furlough are in place now.
Hathaway dispelled rumors that employees would have paid leave over spring break similar to the paid leave some employees were forced to take over the winter break.
"Anything that has paid in front of it, doesn't really help our situation," Hathaway said.
Though a furlough is traditionally considered a temporary layoff from work, Hilburn said the university has not begun to consider what form possible furloughs would take.
"There's not a design in place for what the details of a furlough plan would look like," Hilburn said. "It is clear though that with any furlough plan we would come up with one of the objectives would be to minimize any impact on services, students and also to try to minimize the impact on employees."
A furlough plan would also take into consideration issues of equity among university employees, Hilburn said.
"I thought the discussion today was very positive," said Jackie Farley, Staff Senate chairwoman. "It's very important that information be out there for people to have the opportunity to know what the real story is. I feel like Vice President Hathaway did an excellent job in communicating to that and setting a realistic tone for us to follow."
The Staff Senate also discussed issues regarding possible changes to employee health plans and sent interim policies regarding information technology to the Information Technology Council with added suggestions from members.
The Staff Senate will meet again on Feb. 19.
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