Officials approve prioritization recommendations

By: Emily Wiley, Editor-in-Chief; and Amy Fuhrman, Associate Editor

University budgets will be cut after the board of trustees agreed to move forward with prioritization recommendations. This means cuts across campus.

Prioritization has been going on since April 2014. This is one of the final steps of the process.

“I think this was a very healthy process for the campus,” said Ron Norick, former Oklahoma City mayor and chairman of the board of trustees. “It is one of those things we needed to do. We have to make sure that the health of this campus continues and students are getting the degrees they want and need.”

The trustees met April 22 in the Great Hall in Tom and Brenda McDaniel University Center. The meeting was led by Norick and President Robert Henry.

The board of trustees approved the prioritization results, with the exception of the general cause rule. The rule states that present or projected revenues are insufficient to continue the levels of faculty employment.

The Faculty Senate will provide a report to the provost with opinions from the faculty about the general cause rule and alternatives, who then will relay it to the board of trustees.

The board will vote May 11 on the rule. If the vote passes, the provost will inform the dean or director of the school that reductions will take place and will oversee the termination of faculty.

“The current standing of the university is important to us,” said Susan Barber, provost and vice president for academic affairs. “We are trying to save as much as we can and I believe that our findings were thorough.”

There is a $1.5 million shortfall in the university budget that will require action to take place on the recommendations, according to the prioritization report released April 21 to students.

The email sent to students outlined where the recommendations came from, and emphasized the benefits of this process.

“To bury our heads in the sand and ignore the trends and changes taking place in higher education and at our own university would be reckless,” Henry wrote in the email.