LOUISVILLE, Ky. — Every day we learn about another effect the coronavirus is having on a community. Students are learning at home, and not just those in elementary and high school. College students are also finishing up their semesters at home. But there's an even larger effect taking place on campuses across the United States, a financial effect.
Thursday, University of Louisville president Neeli Bendapudi sent a letter out to university staff, it was also signed by UofL's Leadership Team. The letter spelled out the dire effect the coronavirus has had on the entire university system.
As a result of the pandemic, millions of dollars are being lost. Government orders preventing elective procedures both medical and dental, the NCAA canceling the college basketball tournaments, lower tuition rates for summer classes being offered online and the refunds the school will have to give as a result of COVID-19 are adding up to significant losses.
As of Thursday, April 9, UofL is projecting an almost $40 million negative impact from now until the end of the fiscal year, which is June 30.
In her letter, Bendapudi says the school "must take immediate, strategic and necessary steps to resolve it."
She writes despite difficult decisions coming in the future, she and the university will strive to protect core functions: teaching students, conducting research, treating patients, and fulfilling its mission as a metropolitan research university.
UofL and the leadership team are formulating plans to address the financial crisis and have already implemented the following actions:
*Instituting a hiring freeze
*Transitioning summer courses to online and remphasizing the importance of student recruiting and retention.
*Asking all departments to practice "fiscal restraint" by limiting spending to only truly essential items
*Prohibiting travel - international and domestic
*Evaluating and most likely implementing temporary changes to retirement benefits, not including health insurance or life insurance
*Over the next several weeks, full-time and part-time employee furloughs in targeted areas.
To immediately address the budget situation, President Bendapudi, Provost Beth Boehm, Executive Vice President of Research and Innovation Kevin Gardner and all of UofL's senior leaders are voluntarily taking immediate pay cuts through at least June 30. The leadership also agreed beginning April 1 and running through atleast June 30, the followoing salary cuts:
- 10% pay cut for any employee making $300,000 or more
- 5% pay cut for any employee making between $200,000 - $299,999
- 2% pay cut for any employee making between $100,000 - $199,999
University athletics is also taking action to help with a $2.1 million revenue shortfall this year due to COVID-19. Athletics will be instituting a series of pay cuts for senior-level administrators and head coaches that will run through June 30, 2021, which is another entire year.