U of A announces voluntary severance numbers

EDMONTON – The University of Alberta is losing 121 staff members as part of its voluntary severance program.

The University has approved voluntary severances from 83 faculty members and 38 administrative officers.

Acting Provost Martin Ferguson-Pell says staff in almost every faculty applied for the voluntary severance program.

“The impact will be very significant. We’re going to miss these people dearly because of the huge contributions that they currently make and the contributions they’ve made over many many years,” said Ferguson-Pell.

The affected staff members were notified of the news Monday.

In a news conference on Tuesday, the University explained the voluntary severances will translate to an estimated savings of between $12 and $14 million. The one-time cost of paying out the severances will cost the school $17 million.

The U of A has a mandate from the provincial government to balance its budget by 2015, which means $56 million needs to be cut over the next year.

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Ferguson-Pell explained the amount saved by staff accepting voluntary severance is not enough to prevent possible future involuntary severance.

“I think it will – as things stand at the moment – result in some involuntary severances. But the extent to which we anticipate those at the moment is just not available to us until we work through all the figures.”

“What we have to do at the U of A is start thinking about how we’re now going to more forward, rearrange the resources that we have to provide our programs, look carefully at the programs we’re providing,” he said.

Ferguson-Pell said the biggest impact of the voluntary severances will be felt in September of 2014.

“We have some time to work with because the majority of the voluntary severances will be taken effective the end of June next year, so it doesn’t effect this current financial year or academic year.”

Now, school officials will try to reorganize faculty to create the least impact on students.

“Certainly, we’re looking to see how we can minimized the impact on class size,” said Ferguson-Pell. “Also, it has an impact on graduate student supervision, it has an impact on our research capacity. But what we’re looking at is how we can use existing resources… in order to not have a serious impact on any of those levels.”