Dear Wright State Family,
I value each one of you and think about you every day. I hope you and your families are both healthy and safe. I want to THANK YOU again for everything you are doing for our students and each other during the disruptions caused by this global pandemic. It is in such challenging times that I have seen the true Raider Spirit. I applaud your ingenuity, flexibility, and resilience. You make me proud.
Wright State, like many universities across the nation, must take unprecedented actions, both temporary and permanent, in order to sustain campus operations. Now, more than ever, we must all work together to ensure our future.
I have pledged to be transparent with you so I want to share some of the ways we are tackling our financial challenges.
As you know, at this time we have no confirmation of when a return to campus will be initiated, but recent conversations at the state level have suggested that this will not likely occur prior to July. Therefore, we have asked the campus to participate in a workforce reduction effort. I want to thank those employees who are participating in the program to reduce their current FTE status. All of the campus input will be forwarded to administration, and the current workload will be assessed to ensure that essential campus duties will continue. Therefore, there may be some individuals whose work duties will not accommodate a reduction.
I wish to also note, so we can determine the full picture of how we may move forward for next year’s budget; I have asked supervisors to perform a budget planning exercise. This exercise identifies positions that they believe for next fiscal year will have a workload that temporarily or permanently supports a reduction in FTE, a placement on unpaid leave, or the possibility of permanent position elimination. At this time the university is not committing to acting on these recommendations, but you need to understand that we must begin collecting this data to inform decisions if necessary.
Employees whose pay is reduced will very likely be eligible for unemployment compensation and may maintain their healthcare benefits. The university has developed a website with detailed information to assist affected employees relevant to unemployment processes with the hope of retaining their employment until they return to normal FTE levels. More information is available at wright.edu/human-resources/policies-and-resources/job-changes-due-to-covid-19.
I know these are difficult choices, but we must act now to ensure Wright State can continue to be the university our region and the state of Ohio needs us to be. Like I always say, we are in this together and we will get through this together.
I continue to keep you all in my thoughts. Please stay safe!
Best wishes,
Sue
