The Red and Black

Issue date: 9/9/09 Section: News

STOKES [Click to enlarge]

Across campus, department heads, directors and deans are still working through the gritty details of furlough implementation - and they have less than a month to pull it all together.

The Board of Regents mandated six furlough days at a meeting last month, but the University has given its leaders until Oct. 1 to come up with a plan for the first furlough day, which employees will take on Oct. 30 - fall break.

A furlough is mandatory time off - taken without pay - used as a cost saving measure.

Though the University has released general furlough guidelines on its Web site, each campus unit must come up with its own logistical plan specific to its nuances and needs.

Garnett Stokes, dean of the Franklin College of Arts and Sciences, said she hoped her college would have its plans together before the University's recommended deadline.

"Right now what we are doing is having our school directors and department heads work on creating their own plans in their specific units," Stokes said.

And some divisions face complex challenges.

"It's more complicated for units like the marine institute [the University's ecological research facility on Sapelo Island]," Stokes said. "Their mission is different than that of a regular department."

But every University entity has its own tough decisions to make.

"We plan to observe the days mandated," said Sheila Allen, the dean of the College of Veterinary Medicine. "We do have, however, some individual units that can't simply shut down."

The diagnostic labs and veterinary hospital in the College need to stay open even on furlough days, Allen said. Animals will still need care and data will still need to be collected.

The genetics department faces similar challenges. Some employees must come to work on furlough days to maintain the various long-term research projects needing daily attention.

"Our goal is to have the building entirely empty except for essential personnel," said Jeffrey Bennetzen, the department head for genetics. "There are certain types of facilities that need to be looked after every day."

The "essential personnel" selected to work on furlough days would take their mandatory leave on a different day within the same pay period, Bennetzen said.

Continued...

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