The University of Texas and University of Michigan on Tuesday announced major staff changes in wake of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Both schools cut several staff positions and announced that positions that were currently vacant would not be filled.
The institutions did not cut any sports.
Faced with a potential revenue loss of $100 million, the University of Michigan athletic department will eliminate 21 positions. This latest decision is in addition to a previously announced hiring freeze across the department that has resulted in 15 unfilled positions since early 2020, comprehensive salary freezes, salary reductions ranging between 5 and 10 percent for most employees, and operating and team budget reductions made across the board. The department will also further evaluate temporary furloughs and reductions in hours for staff as additional information about competitions and sports season becomes known.
“The decision to implement staffing reductions was not made lightly and is difficult because of the deep impact on all aspects of our department and especially those who are directly affected,” said Michigan Athletic Director Ward Manuel. “We will continue to identify all necessary strategies to mitigate our circumstances, and we will continue to support our dedicated colleagues who have been so greatly affected.”
Here is in part the statement from Texas Vice President and Athletic Director Chris Del Conte:
• When the COVID-19 pandemic caused the cancellation of our post-season basketball tournaments, as well as the remainder of the 2020 winter and spring sport seasons, Texas Athletics immediately put in place cost containment measures that mitigated the financial impact of COVID-19 related cancellations for the rest of the 2019-20 fiscal year. Those actions amounted to savings in excess of $19.9 million when compared to budgeted operating expenditures for the 2019-20 fiscal year.
• In preparing for the fiscal year 2020-21 and beyond, Texas Athletics’ top priorities are focused on protecting the health and welfare of our student-athletes and maintaining the services and coaching that directly support their academic and athletics pursuits. Strong measures have been taken to mitigate expected revenue losses — such as reducing team and department operating expenses, regionalizing team travel, reducing capital project expenditures, fully integrating the Erwin Center operations within the department and deferring a principal debt payment that totaled savings in excess of $21.3 million.
• However, significant full-time personnel actions were still required to stabilize the financial health of the department. The actions taken on Tuesday are heartbreaking, but necessary to put Texas Athletics in a position for success moving forward. The full-time personnel action includes the following: beginning September 1, 2020 through August 31, 2021, 26 contracted coaches and administrators voluntarily agreed to take temporary salary reductions. Beginning October 16, 2020 through August 31, 2021, 273 staff members will receive temporary salary reductions, and 11 staff members will be temporarily furloughed with benefits. Temporary salary reductions are based on a marginal rate approach in the following manner: the first $50,000 of an employee’s salary will be reduced by 2.5%, the next $50,001 to $100,000 is reduced by 10% and any amount above $100,001 is reduced by 15%. Also, beginning September 1, 2020, 35 staff members will be laid off and 35 vacant positions will be permanently eliminated. Texas Athletics is also suspending the performance incentive program at this time. These actions amount to a $13.1 million savings for the department budget.
• Although this is an extremely difficult time for our department, we fully expect to bounce back from this experience stronger and positioned well to continue to provide the best student-athlete experience in the country and strive to compete for Big 12 and National Championships in all of our 20 sports programs.
These are the latest college affects of the COVID-19 pandemic.
It is a lot better than cutting programs!
Dwight Thomas Davis #savehawkeyesports