ECU furloughs more than 100 employees due to revenue losses from coronavirus pandemic
East Carolina University is placing about 110 employees on “emergency temporary furloughs” because of revenue losses during the coronavirus pandemic.
And “there is more to come,” interim Chancellor Ron Mitchelson told reporters Thursday.
“This is sort of a last resort,” Mitchelson said. “[ECU employees] are so devoted and dedicated to student success and regional success. ... It hurts, certainly them, and it hurts from a decision-makers standpoint.”
Employee furloughs during COVID-19 crisis
The employees who are affected in this round of temporary layoffs were in “auxiliary and receipt-supported enterprises” including Athletics, Administration & Finance, Academic Affairs and Student Affairs. That means they are directly tied to revenue and people being on campus, which has been effectively closed since mid March.
Many of them have been on administrative leave because they couldn’t work on campus, Mitchelson said, and they had been getting paid for “little or no job duties.”
“These receipt-based campus activities have seen so little demand for employee services and/or such a large disruption to revenues that an institutional response is now required,” Mitchelson said in a statement. “No one likes doing this and we held off as long as we could because of the obvious impact on this group of employees. But temporary furloughs are a flexible way to approach the issue and will permit the employees to return when conditions improve.”
Some employees are furloughed at full-time and will not work at all for an undetermined amount of time that is 90 days or less. In other cases, the furloughs are “part-time,” where an employee has been assigned a certain number of days and that can be spread out over a 90-day period. Partial furloughs could also include reduced schedules and salary reductions, according to ECU.
The UNC System approved plans for furloughs for 193 employees so far and Mitchelson said ECU has other furlough plans waiting for approval that will affect more employees at the university. He did not say how many more.
ECU has about 5,600 employees that keep the university running. With the university expecting to welcome students and faculty back to campus for classes in August, these furloughs may be short-lived.
“The good news is we are bringing students back to campus earlier than we had anticipated,” Mitchelson said. “We will need to bring back most of these employees in pretty short order in order to make sure campus is ready for those students.”
Furloughed employees are still eligible for the State Health Plan and will continue to accrue leave. They may also be eligible for unemployment benefits through the North Carolina Employment Security Commission, according to UNC System policy.
Significant revenue losses at ECU
“Without students here on campus or without athletic competitions ... revenues have been severely impacted,” Mitchelson said.
“It probably is no surprise to anyone that some adjustment has to be made,” he said. “And temporary furloughs, I believe, are the most flexible and sensitive and sensible approach to the adjustment.”
Mitchelson said they estimated the revenue losses were “in the neighborhood of $20-$25 million” due to COVID-19. The savings from all the furloughs would be upward of $1 million.
These furlough plans will not come close to recouping that loss, Mitchelson said, but they will help preserve ECU’s reserve funds for those activities and protect them over the next year.
“There’s no doubt the overall impact of COVID-19 is largely not recoverable,” Mitchelson said. “Most of the aid we’re seeing, from the federal government for example, is in response to additional costs. Really the larger impact on us has been lost revenue.“
ECU was eligible to receive about $19 million from the federal Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security (CARES) Act, half of which was designated for students. ECU received $4.3 million allocated from the state legislature for costs related to the transition to online instruction for the spring semester, facility sanitation, canceled activities and other emergency expenses. It was based on campus cost estimates from March 1 through Dec. 30, 2020.
East Carolina also recently cut four sports — men’s and women’s swimming and diving and men’s and women’s tennis — in an effort to curb a $10 million athletic department budget deficit that was made worse by the coronavirus pandemic.
Furloughs at other universities
Chancellors at any university in the UNC System have the authority to ask for emergency temporary furloughs for positions that are auxiliary and receipt-supported only.
Those plans are developed at individual universities and sent to the UNC System and other state offices for approval.
Appalachian State University in Boone has also submitted plans for emergency furloughs, which will affect more than 200 employees, according to documents from the UNC System. Those employees are from campus services and the athletics offices and will save the university more than $1.2 million, documents show. Appalachian State officials did not respond to an email and phone call about details of the furlough plans.
UNC Chapel Hill said it has not placed any employees on furlough. N.C. State and N.C. Central University officials did not respond to questions about whether or not furloughs are expected.
The UNC System has tightened its belt and its budget request as the coronavirus pandemic hurt the state’s economic health. Interim UNC System President Bill Roper anticipated dealing with significant revenue losses at universities.
“A constant priority is taking the necessary steps to deal with revenue losses with aggressive changes in our expenses,” Roper said at a Board of Governors meeting in May. “Simply put, we’re totally focused on how best to serve North Carolina while spending less.”
This story was originally published June 11, 2020 at 1:43 PM.
