Coastal Carolina University will make its required $4 million in budget cuts through layoffs, salary cuts and dropping plans to fill some positions, officials told the board of trustees on Friday.
Notifications about salary cuts and layoffs, which will affect 15-18 employees, will probably go out on Monday, said Will Garland, senior vice president for finance and administration at the university.
The largest portion of the cuts, $1,066,657, will come from the Office of Advancement, which solicits and manages donations to the university and its endowment.
Other cuts include $554,831 in other job and salary cuts and $787,815 in cuts involving unclassified positions. Garland declined to give details on specific positions targeted for cuts because employees had not been notified. Other items include reductions in equipment and staff travel.
The plan was developed after the board asked administrators to find $4 million in savings for the 2010-2011 school year. The state's colleges and public schools have been among some agencies that took the largest hits from the Budget and Control Board after it cut 5 percent from the state budget in December. That followed a 4 percent cut that had been made in September.
"It was taken very seriously," said Robert Sheehan, CCU's provost and senior vice president for academic and student affairs. "There was an effort made to minimize any cuts on services to students."
Sheehan said several things guided their decisions. He thinks they were successful in staying consistent with their strategic plan and making cuts that were proportionately distributed across the university.
Sheehan said they made sure the cuts "will not impede the growth of the university or its ability to serve students."
The board also approved the addition of women's lacrosse as an official CCU sport. Play is expected to begin in the 2012-13 school year.
Cari Rosiek, associate athletic director and senior woman administrator for athletics, said an interest survey had been sent out in February and lacrosse was a sport of interest.
"It is a sport that is up and coming in the NCAA and a sport that is progressing in the South," Rosiek said.
Matt Hogue, of CCU's communications department, said the university already has a "very vibrant women's lacrosse club," and a robust club feeds the interest. He said lacrosse is also an emerging sport in the Big South, CCU's conference.
Rosiek said expanding into women's lacrosse also is an opportunity for CCU to be compliant with Title IX, an education amendment that prohibits discrimination in academics and athletics at schools that receive federal funds.
She said she expects the next steps would be to hire a coach and give that person at least a year to recruit before beginning the season, which would be spring 2013.
In other actions, the board approved two new hires with tenure. Ralph Byington was named dean of the E. Craig Wall Sr. College of Business Administration, effective July 1, and Edward Jadallah was named associate professor of education and chair for curriculum and instruction in the Spadoni College of Education, effective today.
Approvals were also given for:
A five-year renewal lease with Chestnut Holdings LLC for Quail Creek Golf Course
A lease with the Horry County Higher Education Commission for land on which to build a future facility for the Department of Public Safety
A renewal of leases with the Horry County Higher Education Commission for the Burroughs & Chapin Center for Marine and Wetland Studies building and the Procurement building
A lease renewal with the Coastal Educational Foundation for a soccer field, as well as a lease with the foundation for the parking lot area between Baxley Hall and U.S. 501
Leases with the Student Housing Foundation for two houses on the Elvington property
A lease renewal for the Waccamaw Higher Education Center in Litchfield.
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