80s crisis similar to exigency situation

 
Circulating rumors of Southern University functioning in the state of financial exigency in the 1980s are true, according to DIGEST archives. 
In July 1988, the Southern University Board of Supervisors declared financial emergency due to $5.2 million dollars being cut from the budget. A retrenchment plan was put forth in December 1988 and a 2.5 percent cut was taken from all employees who earned $20,000 or more a year. A total of 70 employees were terminated and 560 paychecks were cut.
Mr. Joffre Whisenton was serving as SU System President at the time of declaring financial emergency. Mrs. Dolores Spikes followed by serving as the SU System President and interim chancellor later that year. Gov. Buddy Roemer proposed to cut $9.5 million from SU’s budget while SU was operating on a $5.2 million budget in 1988.
According to DIGEST archives, Ms. Spikes was against the budgets cuts and the declaration because she felt “there will be a negative impact because of the timeliness of the entire process” and “we are being hit unfairly on all sides.”
Chancellor James Llorens firmly believes that a negative image will not be placed on SU and aggressive recruiting may be the key to enrollment problems.
The board also approved to close the university early in the spring semester of 1989 to save money which is similar to the scheduled four-day week, approved by Llorens and academic deans, which will be implemented for the upcoming spring 2012 semester.
According to the 1989 Board of Supervisors’ figures showed that an estimated total of $909,000 was saved due to cuts and layoffs.
It is currently unknown how much will be saved during this current status of financial exigency.  The estimated figures may be released during the Friday’s board meeting according to rumors.
The Board of Supervisors successfully declared financial exigency on Oct. 28 with a unanimous 14-0 vote with two members absent. In September, the vote was deadlocked with a 6-6 vote and four members were absent. The status of financial exigency is will last until June 30, 2012.
Llorens, college deans, faculty and the office of academic affairs are also finalizing a reorganization proposal outlining the implementation of financial exigency. The proposal may be presented in the upcoming board meeting but according to a comment made to a local newspaper from Faculty Senate President Sudhir Trivedi, the proposal may debut in the Dec. 16 board meeting. Trivedi also believes a total of 50 faculty members may be terminated.
The reorganization draft proposal outlines a five-college model that would merge programs. So far, the proposed consolidated colleges are listed as the College of Education and Liberal Arts, the College of Engineering, Architecture and Technology, the College of Business and Public Policy, the College of Agricultural and Natural Sciences, and the College of Nursing and Allied Health.
In July of 1989, a similar major reorganization plan was approved which consolidated music and fine arts into performing and visual arts, the department of English, foreign languages and speech was consolidated into a single department and the College of Arts and Humanities was also combined with the College of Sciences.