Another vacation spoiled

— Chancellor G. David Gearhart may never experience a peaceful vacation. Over his years in Fayetteville, each time he finally has gotten away from the University of Arkansas, another calamity inevitably has suddenly arisen.

Well folks, nothing’s changed in 2010. Last week he heard from out of the blue-while on vacation, of course-that the pay increases averaging 2 percent and expected to begin on July 1 for some 1,200 non-classified faculty and staff and 1,600 classified workers were being canceled.

The only exception will be classified workers, who include janitors, ground workers and administrative assistants. They will get the second half of the delayed raises they were mandated to receive in this fiscal year, which ends June 30.

When he learned that Gov. Mike Beebe was not in favor of university raises, B. Alan Sugg, president of the University of Arkansas System and Gearhart’s boss, met with Beebe. He reminded the governor that back in May UA trustees had approved and announced a budget increase that included the raises.

Reportedly, trustees have the sole authority to approve pay raises at their school. Nonetheless, the governor “strongly recommended” to Sugg that the previously announced raises be retracted. A disappointed Sugg complied.

Whoa. Talk about closing the gate after thousands of soaring expectations are freed. The money that would have gone to the raises instead was directed into a reserve account, perhaps to be distributed next year retroactive to July 1, 2010, according to Sugg. Sounds just a tad iffy to me.

Beebe had announced in January that there wasn’t enough in state coffers to cover raises for state employees in the coming fiscal year, but there was confusion over what was meant by “state employees.” UA-Fayetteville, which had funds remaining in its undedicated reserves to cover any potential state shortfalls, apparently didn’t realize that the announcement was meant to apply to its faculty and staff.

Richard Weiss, who directs the Arkansas Department of Finance and Administration, sent a memo on May 26, five days after the UA trustees increased the budget to fund the raises. The memo said that state agencies were to hold their budgets to 2010 levels. Then earlier this month Weiss reiterated to a legislative committee that budgetary constraints meant the state would be suspending salary increases and cost-of-living adjustments at all public institutions.

Jim Purcell, director of the Department of Higher Education, told lawmakers that some folks question whether state finance directors have the authority to command universities when to withhold pay increases from their employees. The same question ought to be asked about a governor’s role.

Understandably, being forced to pull back these raises has left the Fayetteville chancellor, the system’s president and others frustrated and filled with legitimate questions. I have a few of my own.

Who can university presidents and chancellors trust if their decisions, and those of their trustees, can be overruled by a governor? Must university trustees now check with the governor before making decisions about managing their institutions? If so, then of what real use is a university president, chancellor or board of trustees?

Injecting state government directly into the decision-making machinery of a university sets a dangerous precedent. Doing so makes it extremely difficult for university leaders to confidently manage when they don’t know if their decisions might be nixed a week later by a bureaucrat or the governor.

Why would a governor even get involved in these sorts of decisions when the state provides less than half of what’s required to educate a college student? And where do the boundaries exist in such instances, if at all? With curriculum? Admissions? Hiring? Administration?

Did the governor and the state’s chief financial guru not realize that UA-Fayetteville already had announced and programmed the raises into its computers? If so, why didn’t they talk with UA leaders before issuing what amounted to a political edict to recall those increases for the time being?

All this has spoiled yet another vacation for the Fayetteville chancellor. Meanwhile, he is wrestling with how to cancel the raises while seeking other ways to financially help his 2,800 affected employees. Whatever is done to resolve such a confounding mess will require time and effort.

Living within the realistic boundaries of a state’s budget can be tough on any agency or institution. Reasonable folks see the process as a necessary discipline of responsible government. And, yes, economic times are tough. The state’s revenue did fall short of projections last year, forcing two budget cuts that triggered pay and hiring freezes at many colleges and universities.

It’s the poorly timed, uncommunicative and needlessly heavy-handed way this unexpected disappointment unfolded that has left leaders at the University of Arkansas at Fayetteville wondering what authority, if any, they truly have within their own institution.

Hey, I can’t blame them.

Mike Masterson is opinion editor of the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette’s Northwest edition.

Editorial, Pages 15 on 06/29/2010

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