Stony Brook University Budget Office

Specific Budget Reduction Impacts
2009-2010

Campus-wide:

Academic Areas (nonmedical):

Reduced new graduate student recruiting by 20% (76 positions) and eliminated supplementary $2000 fellowships. The impact will be fewer graduate students and reduce our ability to attract high quality graduate students and to retain faculty.
The Turner postdoctoral faculty traineeship program for Ph.D. graduates from underrepresented minority groups was eliminated.
The Graduate Council fellowship program, the most prestigious and competitive fellowship for graduate admissions, was eliminated.
Reduced faculty hiring by 80%
Reduced library staffing
Offer 264 fewer sections in the academic year 09/10 due to reduced faculty levels. This will result in fewer offerings, larger classes, reduced student retention and increased time to degree.
Closed the cytotechnology program. There is a national shortage of these professionals.
Reduced or eliminated support for distinguished lecture series, program quality reviews, and other faculty development opportunities.
Reduced support for Undergraduate College programming.
Reduced support for research Centers and Institutes.
The opening of the approved Civil Engineering degree program will be delayed.

Division of Information Technology:

Five positions have been eliminated. Those positions were involved in supporting, among other things, an imaging system which was recently purchased to help ease the burden on Admissions and other areas that need to share information, the campus data warehouse project, and the PeopleSoft financial aid module

Procurement:

Three key personnel positions have not been filled. Contract management experience has been lost and will be difficult to replace. Delays in processing University contracts will be experienced.

Human Resource Services:

The elimination of a Trainee Manager has reduced most of the programs offered by this unit. The limited number of Supervisory Training Sessions will impact new supervisors moving into positions that require a complete understanding of budget and management issues which help reduce Labor Relations issues.
The elimination of the Director of Compensation and Classification could delay requests managed by this area.

School of Medicine:

Critical Clinical Programs - The School of Medicine is delaying the hiring of key clinical faculty in strategic areas, including Geriatrics, Neurosciences, Trauma, Cancer, and Heart. As a result, patient care needs are not being fully addressed in these sub-specialties.
Student Quality of Life - The School of Medicine has reduced its support of student run organizations and delayed scheduled enhancements, including adding teaching faculty, creating new classroom/lecture hall space, and updating student lounges. Those actions could affect the School’s LCME accreditation next year.
Satisfying Commitments – The School has had to delay or forego the hiring of faculty in Departments and Institutes where new Chairs/Directors have been hired with the promise of faculty growth. If those obligations are not met it will be difficult to recruit key positions in the future. It has open Chair positions in the Departments of Medicine, Neurology, Radiology, and Surgery.
Personnel reductions will make it more difficult to respond to mental health and health / wellness outreach and expand experiential learning opportunities available to students.

Communications:

We will be unable to fund adequate market research and benchmarking studies that would provide us with the data necessary to create the most effective advertising, marketing, and other outreach campaigns for the University.
The reduction to the University media plan funding reduces the campus’ institutional visibility in national and regional print, radio, online and other media outlets.

Facilities:

There are insufficient funds to support preventative maintenance of the heating and cooling plants. HVAC and mechanical systems, elevator repairs, roof repairs and storm water systems will be affected. The campus will experience more frequent failures, resulting in disruptions of the electrical, boiler, water main, water valves and fire hydrants systems. In addition, it’s anticipated that costly long term repairs will inconvenience the campus community.
Routine and general maintenance have also been reduced. Buildings will not be cleaned or maintained at the same level or frequency. Parts inventory will be reduced resulting in possible delays to repairs and service response times. Bathroom and grounds maintenance will be curtailed affecting campus appearance and quality of life. Gardens will have reduced plantings and lawns will have less maintenance.
All planned special projects to support sustainability will be put on hold.
As a result of unfunded positions the area’s safety team (Emergency Management, University Police and Fire Marshalls) will not keep pace with our enrollment growth.
Two fund pools which supported office, lounge and classroom rehabilitation and repairs have been eliminated.