TBR Approves Furloughs and Salary Reductions as Cost-Cutting Options

Presidents at Board of Regents schools can now reduce salaries and use furloughs to save money, regents voted unanimously today.

The measure didn’t give campus presidents unlimited cost-cutting authority. They must meet with employees who would be impacted by the cuts and provide documentation to get TBR approval.

At Austin Peay State University, President Timothy Hall says employees seem to prefer the idea of taking unpaid leave because at least there’s a job to come back to.

“Faculty and staff are the ones who suggested to me that if worse came to worse, and we started talking about laying people off, at least some of them believed it would be better for us all to take some kind of furlough.”

Hall says he has no plans to use the furloughs or salary reductions just yet, but he would if the alternative was job cuts. He says a hiring freeze and a halt to expansion plans should bridge the loss of 7-million dollars in state appropriations for next year.