Georgetown University’s Newspaper of Record since 1920

The Hoya

Georgetown University’s Newspaper of Record since 1920

The Hoya

Georgetown University’s Newspaper of Record since 1920

The Hoya

Faculty Question GUMC Layoffs

After last month’s round of layoffs and new restructuring efforts, many of Georgetown University Medical Center’s employees continue to express frustration with senior management and the steps administrators have taken to try to overcome GUMC’s financial instability.

In an effort to stem the mounting deficit at the Medical Center, which has reached a cumulative $333 million since 1995, Georgetown’s Board of Directors instituted a restaging plan in 2001 to reduce expenditures and break even by fiscal year 2007.

To achieve these goals, administrators decided to terminate 65 staff and non-tenured faculty positions last year and last month announced the elimination of an additional nine positions.

Stanley Fricke, an assistant professor in the department of neurology, said he has seen more than a dozen of his close co-workers and four full-time administrative assistants lose their jobs.

“There is great fear and apprehension in the staff and faculty,” he said. “A more bleak future seems inevitable.”

Fricke said the general tone of the university has changed since he first arrived at GUMC.

“The polite, attentive, respectful atmosphere of the campus seemed to emanate from the buildings, grounds, flowers, virtually everywhere, in a quiet spiritual way,” he said. “Today there is a shadow on that indescribable feeling.”

Though the Medical Center brought in a record-setting $130 million in sponsored research awards in fiscal year 2004, GUMC still fell short of its financial targets due to lower-than-expected revenues from fundraising.

University President John J. DeGioia said during an interview in September that the Medical Center is attempting to reduce expenses by $19.75 million in the next two years. Last year’s layoffs achieved $7.9 million in savings, though the administration had projected $12.75 million in savings from the staff reductions.

In February, the Board of Directors approved a restructuring plan that would organize the Medical Center into four units – the School of Medicine, the School of Nursing and Health Studies, the Lombardi Comprehensive Cancer Center and the newly created Biomedical Graduate Research Organization.

GUMC spokeswoman Amy DeMaria said the consolidation of the financial management of the academic departments in the BGRO required the creation of new positions and the elimination of some old ones.

“This is a necessary step in our plan to create a more efficient and better-integrated

research and graduate education enterprise and to help the edical Center stop losing money,” she said.

But Robert Glazer, professor of pharmacology and oncology, said that the Medical Center should increase its efforts to attract outside donations and grants rather than conduct new faculty layoffs.

“This has not at all been a transparent process and the faculty and indeed the

faculty senate have been kept in the dark,” he said. “There has not been one clear presentation by senior management addressing this issue, and the budget has not been open to scrutiny by people without a vested interest.”

Glazer also said that faculty committees and working groups examining GUMC policy changes had no real power or ability to overrule what he called “preordained policies” agreed upon by the Medical Center’s administration. He said that the firing of several faculty was a violation of Georgetown’s policies regarding the fair treatment of faculty.

Instead of being pressured by administrators to help pay their own salaries through various outside funding sources like grants, untenured faculty should be allowed to devote time to teaching and service, Glazer said.

He also criticized the Medical Center for cutting faculty rather than senior administrative positions and creating a top-heavy management structure.

“This can have one outcome, decimation of departmental structure and an absence of new vitality and new faculty recruitment – the lifeblood of a university,” he said.

DeMaria said, however, that GUMC has taken great care to include faculty in all important decisions. This includes listening to feedback from various open meetings and forums, such as the working groups that came up with plans for the university to achieve financial solvency, the Medical Center’s faculty caucus and the university’s faculty senate, she said.

“The faculty caucus and other Medical Center governance bodies that are populated by faculty representatives provided feedback that was incorporated into the plan that was approved by the Board of Directors in February 2005,” she continued.

DeMaria also insisted that the university was in line with the Fair Treatment section of the Faculty Handbook, which states that faculty deserve to be treated fairly and should be free from “arbitrary and capricious” action.

“The Medical Center has taken great care to handle the restructuring process in a way that respects these rights and has made all decisions regarding staff layoffs and faculty non-reappointments with great care and deliberation,” she said.

According to DeMaria, while the most recent round of layoffs last month included no cuts in top management, those last year included “significant” reduction of administration officials.

Frike said he sympathizes with the senior management at the edical Center and the tough choices they were forced to make.

“Though it is easy to blame all this on the `administration,’ the sense of guilt and shame for some will be unbearable, the loss of jobs equally unbearable,” he said.

Many who have lost jobs at the university have found opportunities elsewhere. Steven Ebert, currently an assistant professor in the department of pharmacology, received his letter of termination from the university last summer. After receiving many offers for positions elsewhere, he decided to accept a tenured associate professorship in the Biomolecular Science Center at the University of Central Florida.

He said that GUMC did not make any efforts to retain him, though he received substantial new grants within the past year.

“I am excited about moving to a more progressive, growing environment and one that is strongly supported by the state of Florida,” Ebert said.

DeMaria said that though grants and fundraising are unpredictable, the Medical Center is on track to achieve financial stability by fiscal year 2007.

“There is evidence that our efforts are paying off – right now, we are projecting that the Medical Center’s financial results for fiscal year 2005 will reflect a deficit that is significantly smaller than what we had originally projected,” she said.

Stuart Bondurant, executive vice president for health sciences at GUMC, said at an open meeting with staff last month that recent steps taken to overcome operating deficits have been successful. He announced that the Medical Center’s projected deficit – at close to $15 million this fiscal year – will be nearly $5 million less than previously thought.

Glazer and others, however, claimed that the university has mismanaged not only the financial situation, but the efforts at recovery.

“The tenet that the senior management at GU fail to appreciate is that it is the faculty and their students that define the university, not the administration,” Glazer said.

Ebert agreed, saying that the university has to refocus its efforts on staff enrichment and research to reduce the deficit. He claimed that layoffs may save money in the short-term, but the longer term effect will be a loss in productivity.

“Despite this, I am grateful for the opportunities that I had here,” Ebert said. “I was able to develop and grow as a scientist, educator, and person – assets that I will put to good use at my new job in Florida.”

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