By The Editorial Board
In the current uncertain economy, money is an issue for many people. Tightening budgets, reduced spending and painful cutbacks have become commonplace, and even Fordham has not escaped cutbacks.
The University suffered an over five million dollar deficit for the 2013 fiscal year due to shortfalls in revenue projections made approximately five years ago. Because of the decrease in revenue, the University was forced to tighten its purse strings in many areas, which included the implementation of a hiring freeze for the remainder of the term. Although the freeze is labeled as a “soft freeze” by the university, any staff or administration position that opens up cannot be immediately filled due to the lack of current funding.
The freeze has forced many departments to deal with overworked staff and growing piles of work as vacant positions remain unfilled. Fordham College at Rose Hill is one of the departments currently lacking staff members. The college, for example, has been unable to hire a new administrative staff member to fill the opening created by Dean Michelle Bata’s resignation in early January. Bata’s work, particularly her direction of the undergraduate research program, has been split up among other staff members, causing them to take on longer hours and a heavier workload.
For now, things have been running relatively normally here at Fordham, but it is unclear as to how long this can continue. In the Office of Residential Life, for example, Dean Kimberly Russell has taken on part of the responsibilities of the frozen position for the assistant director of leadership and training. Residential Directors in many of the buildings have had to step up and take on new responsibilities in addition to their current duties, such as helping to implement the new residential assistant hiring program.
One substantial reason for the budget shortfall at Fordham is lower-than-expected enrollment. Several schools within Fordham failed to meet projected enrollment goals.
David Gautschi, dean of the Graduate School of Business Administration, expressed frustration about the hiring freeze (see “Hiring Freeze Result of Large Budget Deficit” on Page 1), saying that the freeze hinders GBA’s ability to increase its prestige among national graduate business schools. Gautschi said that the hiring freeze deprives GBA of essential administrative infrastructure precisely at the time when the school needs to modernize. GBA, he said, must evolve along with the market, and the hiring freeze has the potential to impede that evolution.
We at The Fordham Ram share Dean Gautschi’s concern. The hiring freeze could potentially force the University into a self-perpetuating quandary. Fordham’s budget shortfall is due, in part, to lower-than-expected enrollment. Yet, schools like GBA must have the ability to hire new staff members in order to modernize, gain reputation and, consequently, to increase enrollment, which would help to relieve the budget deficit. The hiring freeze might inadvertently exacerbate the problem that it was devised to combat.
The budget shortfall at Fordham is certainly a complicated issue, and combatting a deficit almost always involves some pain. While it is good to see staff members willing to step up and fill in the gaps created by staff openings, we at The Fordham Ram question whether the hiring freeze is sustainable. For now, life largely continues as usual from a student perspective, but if the freeze continues for much longer, will students (and prospective students) begin to notice its negative effects? Is a hiring freeze the best way for Fordham to address the budget deficit in a way that does not put its future in jeopardy?
