Cushioning budget cuts: Chancellor's new Employee Assistance Fund will help qualm fears

Chancellor Holden Thorp introduced a initiative Friday that could decrease the atmosphere of fear and uncertainty brought on by the economic crisis.

At a Faculty Council meeting he announced the creation of a special fund to help employees who get laid off due to budget cuts.

The $445000 Employee Assistance Fund will primarily fund outplacement services to ease the transition for laid-off employees.

No one knows how extensive these layoffs will be. The damage can't be calculated until the state passes a budget and details of the federal stimulus package are known.

And we probably won't know until the summer what the tough decisions will be.

That's why it's especially important that Thorp is taking this measure now. He and his wife even plan to contribute $25000.

The rest of the fund comes from a $250000 gift from a donor$100 000 from the Department of Athletics and $70000 from the cancelation of a five-day bus trip across the state typically offered to new faculty.

The creation of this fund confirms that employee layoffs are inevitable. While regrettable not to mention painful for the families affected these measures are part of an effort to minimize the negative impact of cuts on the University.

Thorp also said Friday that he doesn't foresee the elimination tenured faculty positions or letting tenure decisions be made based on budget constraints.

And he pledged that administrators in South Building will be as hard-hit if not harder-hit by cuts as the rest of campus.

This Employee Assistance Fund is a good first step to deliver on that promise.

If cuts are inevitable we should have measures in place to help people adjust from the top down.