The McCombs School of Business at the University of Texas at Austin has eliminated 16 positions due to the current budgetary crisis, the school announced earlier this week. The cuts were finalized on November 2nd and will be effective January 31st. The staff reduction represents roughly 20 percent of overall cost-cutting measures the school plans to implement, according to Dean Tom Gilligan.
Even as it cuts some positions to address the budgetary challenges, McCombs will reallocate resources in order to retain and reward its very best faculty and continue to hire, according to Gilligan. “New faculty are central to the prominence of our school and the new initiatives we are undertaking in our strategic plan,” he said. “This means we must continue to proactively hire the very best scholars available.”
Efforts are being made to provide support to those employees directly affected by the cuts as well as to the community as a whole. “While we are especially concerned for those directly impacted,” Gilligan said, “we also recognize that everyone feels the effects of the reduction in some way or the other. This is a time for us to listen to concerns, be supportive and help teams readjust.”
The school’s human resources department will provide career services assistance and counseling to employees whose positions have been eliminated, and unit heads within the school have held group meetings with those not affected by the cuts to help address questions and concerns the reductions bring regarding work load and morale.
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