UNCA slashes jobs, closes two research centers
Friday, 07 August 2009

UNC Asheville announced plans on July 13 to eliminate 43 positions, which will result in the loss of jobs for eight staff members.

The university was acting on instructions from the UNC General Administration to plan for a 10 percent permanent budget reduction for the 2009-10 fiscal year.

The job losses are the first in many years at UNCA, which was able to sustain last year’s 7 percent budget reduction by allowing vacant jobs to remain unfilled, reducing costs and improving efficiencies in administrative areas.

Of the 43 staff positions eliminated this week, 26 were vacant and 17 had people in them. UNCA transferred nine of the affected staff members to open positions that are essential to academic and student services.

The elimination of the 43 staff jobs will lessen university expenses by $1.65 million. No faculty positions were eliminated.

Also, UNCA is closing the campus convenience store and phasing out two centers identified as not central to UNCA’s core mission and strategic plan. The Mössbauer Effect Data Center, a data collection center for spectroscopy research, and the Environmental Quality Institute, a laboratory that focuses primarily on analyzing and monitoring water quality, will be phased out as university centers over the next six months, and  over the next six to 12 months, respectively.