I don't fall under this (bus), as I am faculty not staff. The 13 people I supervise, however, do. The first part is voluntary, but they haven't announced the criteria that makes one eligible. When an employee is notified they are eligible for the voluntary deal, they will have only one week to decide whether or not to take it. After that it is involuntary.

Oh yikes.

Oh crap, Sparky. Are things that bad there? I haven't been keeping up with the latest, except for tossing the infinite numbers of "Donate NOW!" missives I receive.

My new neighbor across the hall actually dropped by last night to notify me he was hosting a party, and told me to let him know if anyone got too loud. Someone raised that boy right. It's amazing how much less noise in the stairwell bothers me if I know to expect it.

Ugh, Sparky. Fingers crossed for the library.

I just sent an email to the head IT guy expressing that I thought something he had mentioned to me and my boss in email was going to be problematic, especially since it wasn't clear in his office wide email. He may be annoyed at me, but what i really wanted to say was "WTF? Who made that dumb ass decision? That is going to be a massive issue, and is totally insulting to the staff, by the way" so I don't really care.

Oy, Sparky. I'm sorry.

There's a turkey in our parking lot, attacking it's reflection in the glass part of the wall where we have the outlet sale. Looks big and healthy.

Are things that bad there?

Undergraduate admissions were not what they were hoping for, so that's why these cuts are happening.

The law school already had a RIF two years ago, and we lost ~25 staff members around the school, so people are hoping we don't get hit hard again. (No other academic dept has had a RIF.)

But to give you some idea of my corner of the workd: Last year I cut 375K from the library budget. The year before that: 450K. This fiscal year we predicted 150K, but I think we'll get close to 250K. I've lost 7 positions in two years.

We are being tasked with a 3% overall reduction in budget this year, with more next year-- this is throughout the medical center, of which the school of medicine and the scool of nursing fall under (for some reason we report through the medical center to the university president). BUT we still need to come up with the money for strategic initiatives.

I think they are so reluctant to get rid of people, (not that I mind) that we are nickle and diming everything. I spent more time arguing because I gave a faculty member a parking pass that cost $3.50 when they are supposed to pay for parking themselves. Also, we can no longer order door stops, except for ones that cost $50.00 through facilities.

Last year I cut 375K from the library budget. The year before that: 450K. This fiscal year we predicted 150K, but I think we'll get close to 250K. I've lost 7 positions in two years.

Holy crap. That's not insubstantial.

Yeah, wow, that's a lot of money to cut (unless you're like, the federal government and defense spending). And more layoffs? Boo.