Yesterday afternoon I had a late lunch with my friend Stuart, seen in the photograph above, at Spanky's Roadhouse, located just to the west of the University of Denver campus in South Central Denver. I was surprised to learn that Stuart, a DU alumnus like me, had not heard about the major restructuring and budget cuts that are taking place at DU. The university was facing a $30 million budget shortfall this past fiscal year, mostly due to the decline in the college age population and in the number of international students. They made up the shortfall by not filling vacant positions, cutting expenses, and making up the remaining difference using endowment funds. The university's board of trustees approved a balanced budget for fiscal 2027 last week, but in addition to cutting expenses and not filling vacant positions, the university will also consolidate five of its schools into two and eliminate five of its academic departments. This will require, according to Chancellor Jeremy Haefner, "some rightsizing of our employees." Interestingly enough, Stuart, who has a master's degree in international studies from DU's Josef Korbel School of International Studies, received an e-mail announcement from the dean of that school yesterday morning announcing that three faculty members would be leaving. It appears DU is wasting no time in rightsizing those employees. I suggested to Stuart that now is the time to make that big donation to his alma mater, but he did not seem enthusiastic about the idea. And no, I myself will not be making a donation to them anytime soon, either. I did work for DU for almost 30 years before getting "retired" (i.e. laid off) after the DU Bookstore was outsourced, and so I consider that to be my donation. You're welcome.
No comments:
Post a Comment