{"id":50,"date":"2021-03-22T14:34:53","date_gmt":"2021-03-22T18:34:53","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sites.temple.edu\/facultyherald\/?p=50"},"modified":"2021-03-24T19:09:04","modified_gmt":"2021-03-24T23:09:04","slug":"temple-posts-profits-yet-proposes-more-budget-cuts","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sites.temple.edu\/facultyherald\/2021\/03\/22\/temple-posts-profits-yet-proposes-more-budget-cuts\/","title":{"rendered":"Temple Posts Profits, Yet Proposes More Budget Cuts"},"content":{"rendered":"\t\t
\n\t\t\t\t\t\t
\n\t\t\t\t\t\t
\n\t\t\t\t\t
\n\t\t\t
\n\t\t\t\t\t\t
\n\t\t\t\t
\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\n\n

Jesse Bunch<\/h2>\n<\/font>\n\n\n\n

Master’s candidate, Journalism<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

At the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic, Temple University slashed its budget, anticipating a once-in-a-generation economic downturn. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Now one year into the crisis, the university is proposing a second round of budget cuts for the 2021-2022 academic year. This time, union members say the impact could devastate the livelihoods of non-tenure track professors and increase already bloated class sizes. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cMassive investment returns\u201d<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

These cuts are particularly painful, according to the Temple Association of University Professionals, because they\u2019re simply not necessary. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThey have plenty of money to make up that gap,\u201d said Donald Wargo, a union member and economics professor who analyzed the budget. Wargo says Temple\u2019s massive investment returns, as well as the recently-passed government stimulus, could easily cover lost income \u2014 and then some.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Budget cut by 5%<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

According to Temple spokesperson Ray Betzner, the cut amounts to a five-percent expense reduction within each university division, though the figure isn\u2019t final and could decrease depending on fall enrollment numbers. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThe university\u2019s undergraduate enrollment is down more than 1,900 this year and we don\u2019t yet know what enrollment will be like for the fall,\u201d said Betzner over email. \u201cThis is a real and serious issue that can only be addressed with a budget cut.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Betzner added that enhanced COVID-19 prevention measures, such as testing and physically-distanced classroom configurations, caused a reduction in revenue.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Union members first learned of the cuts in a faculty senate meeting, when Temple Chief Financial Officer Ken Kaiser said he anticipates a $30 million dollar profit loss due to a drop in student attendance amidst the pandemic, as well as an increase in four-year graduation rates. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

$163 million in profit<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

A profit loss, however, does not mean Temple is losing money. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

TAUP recently launched a media campaign called #TempleMadeMillions, which highlights the fact that the university has still generated large amounts of profit. According to Temple\u2019s consolidated financial statement for the 2019-2020 academic year, the university earned $163 million in excess revenues.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

TAUP\u2019s campaign also cites Temple\u2019s $1.6 billion dollar investment portfolio that, according to estimated returns, will yield around $170 million dollars this year. Temple typically directs 4.25 percent of their investment returns back into the university. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The union\u2019s analysis found that if the university forgoes budget cuts, Temple would still make around $60 million in operational profit next year \u2014 plus additional investment returns. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWhen someone says we have a budget deficit, it usually means you\u2019re losing money, and you have to at least make that up so you break even,\u201d said Wargo. \u201cBut this is not a break-even thing. They\u2019re saying they\u2019re not going to make enough in comparison to last year.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Non-tenure track faculty<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

The pain of last year\u2019s budget cut was felt heavily by non-tenure track employees, many of them adjuncts and part-time professors. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The union says a second cut could be much worse. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

In 2020, TAUP found that twice the average amount of non-tenure track professors lost their contracts from the university. In a recent testimony made in front of Pennsylvania state legislators, Temple President Richard M. Englert noted that the university was not laying off employees. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Still, contracts were not renewed. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIf that\u2019s not layoffs, I don\u2019t know what is,\u201d said Deborah Lemieur, an adjunct professor in the Intellectual Heritage department. \u201cIt\u2019s unfair to say they\u2019re not laying off faculty, because they are.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Between last fall and this spring, Lemieur says 10 adjuncts in the Intellectual Heritage department lost all of their courses, while 21 lost half. Some of these educators had been teaching at the university for decades.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cBudget reductions impact everyone, not just a single segment of our population,\u201d said Betzner on behalf of the university. \u201cThe one group we try to protect from feeling the impact of budget cuts is students.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Students\u2019 class sizes<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

While lower enrollment numbers means less need for professors, it can also lead to more students being squeezed into single courses \u2014 a trend TAUP said was made worse by the pandemic.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIf you have 50 students in a class that used to have 40, then those students are going to get that much less attention from that professor,\u201d said Lemieur. \u201cEven raising by two to five students per class quickly adds up. And fewer professors are hired as a result.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Alternatives to budget cuts<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

While the second round of budget cuts has yet to be announced publicly, TAUP members have already begun sounding the alarm \u2014 and offering up solutions that don\u2019t involve cuts.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

According to Wargo, the first one is obvious. A portion of Temple\u2019s profits or investment returns could reasonably fund the retention of professors. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The second solution comes in the form of the American Rescue Plan, a $1.9 trillion coronavirus relief package recently signed by President Joe Biden. The plan earmarks aid for public universities, and TAUP anticipates Temple will receive around $44 million \u2014 the amount they received last year from the CARES Act. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

According to the plan, some of that money needs to go towards financial aid for students. If Temple uses the money as they did last year, $14 million would go towards student aid, said Wargo. That would leave millions left for economic shortfall. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Looking forward, TAUP plans to amp up their #TempleMadeMillions campaign, with messaging targeting the state legislators that help finance Temple as well as students and parents. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWe need to make public that the university does have other options. There is a large endowment fund, the university is raking in profits \u2014 still,\u201d said Lemieur. \u201cThe austerity line that the university is playing is a false one.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Reprinted with permission of the author from the Philadelphia News<\/em><\/p>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/section>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

At the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic, Temple University slashed its budget, anticipating a once-in-a-generation economic downturn. Now one year into the crisis, the university is proposing a second round of budget cuts for the 2021-2022 academic year. This time, union members say the impact could devastate the livelihoods of non-tenure track professors and increase already bloated class sizes.<\/p>\n

Continue ReadingTemple Posts Profits, Yet Proposes More Budget Cuts<\/span><\/a><\/div>\n","protected":false},"author":2370,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_themeisle_gutenberg_block_has_review":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[19],"tags":[26,30,3,24,29,28,25,27],"class_list":["post-50","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-march-2021","tag-adjuncts","tag-american-rescue-plan","tag-budget","tag-budget-cuts","tag-class-sizes","tag-covid-19","tag-ntts","tag-taup","entry"],"featured_image_src":null,"featured_image_src_square":null,"author_info":{"display_name":"Anna Peak","author_link":"https:\/\/sites.temple.edu\/facultyherald\/author\/apeak\/"},"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","post_mailing_queue_ids":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.temple.edu\/facultyherald\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/50","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.temple.edu\/facultyherald\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.temple.edu\/facultyherald\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.temple.edu\/facultyherald\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2370"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.temple.edu\/facultyherald\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=50"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/sites.temple.edu\/facultyherald\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/50\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.temple.edu\/facultyherald\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=50"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.temple.edu\/facultyherald\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=50"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.temple.edu\/facultyherald\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=50"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}