In a letter to all employees of the Housing and Residential Education units of NYU, the university basically told them that the two programs will be combined into one, some new positions will be created, some will be modified, and some will be eliminated. “At the end of this process, there will be job eliminations,” it states.

I spoke with an administrator with friends in the Housing department. She told me that many of the Housing employees, including mid- and high-level people, fear losing their jobs.

It appears that this is the first place NYU will be looking to trim their labor budget (after the salary freeze) to help alleviate the drop in revenue from a slumping economy, a smaller-than-normal tuition increase, and a big boost in financial aid.

Full letter after the jump.

TO: ALL EMPLOYEES OF HOUSING AND RESIDENTIAL EDUCATION

FROM: Alison Leary, Linda Mills, Robert Kivetz, and Marc Wais

RE: A Plan to Consolidate the Housing and Residential Education Offices

As administrators, our important – even indispensible – responsibility is to provide the infrastructure that enables NYU’s scholarship, artistic creativity, and teaching and learning to be successful in the most cost-effective manner possible.  This is particularly true at a tuition-dependent institution.

As John Sexton noted in his email to the University community yesterday, we are now in a period in which this latter responsibility weighs even more heavily.  At NYU, the full scope of our challenge is about $120 million, a consequence of a reduced increase in tuition and housing fees, increases in financial aid, diminished investment income, and declines in fundraising, to name some of the key elements.

While we have already identified savings to address much of this, these circumstances require us to approach all our operations with a new open-mindedness and a greater degree of scrutiny.  We must pose questions to ourselves in a fashion that, perhaps, we have not been compelled to in our recent history about how best to administer the University, to ask ourselves if we can make improvements and if there are new ways of delivering high-quality services while yielding greater savings.

With these priorities and realities in mind, we have concluded that we should consolidate the various elements of the student housing system, integrating the Residential Education programming operation with Housing’s logistics and operational responsibility into one organization in the Office of the Provost under the Division of Student Affairs.

Starting tomorrow, we will begin conducting a detailed and wide-ranging assessment of all programs, operations, and services with senior staff members from both units. We will meet with these senior employees over a two-week period in early to late May to gather information to help guide us in creating a structure for the new consolidated organization. In mid- to late-June, we plan to communicate to you the new structure.  While that structure has yet to be determined, it may very well make use of new roles and new types of positions, as well as modifications of existing positions.

The employees who work in our student housing system, both in Housing Administration and Residential Education, are good people who have shown devotion to their duties and to the University – that is not in question.  This decision – and there will be other, similar reviews throughout the University administration – results from our obligation to apply a fresh set of eyes to how we do business in a time of economic pressure.

We will approach this undertaking with seriousness and with a commitment to treat everyone with dignity and respect; you, as our dedicated employees, deserve nothing less.  In keeping with that pledge, we also owe it to you to be straightforward: while most of the employees in Housing and Res Ed will continue to work here – albeit in some instances in new or modified positions – that will not be the case for everyone.  At the end of this process, there will be job eliminations.

This is an important effort, one that will require assistance from everyone involved in the student residence system over the coming weeks.  Nonetheless, our ongoing responsibilities remain front and center: to provide a high-quality residential environment for students, to welcome the summer residents into the housing system, to operate our summer program effectively, and then, especially, to make ready for the arrival of students for the start of the 2009-10 academic year and welcome them warmly to NYU.  Although the evaluation will be ongoing during this period, we expect – and know we can rely on – the same professionalism, diligence, and dedication you have always shown NYU and our students in fostering an intellectually robust residential experience and a sense of community.

We were able to meet face-to-face with a number of colleagues from Housing and Res Ed today to discuss these points; we are writing you to recap the main points we conveyed verbally, and to make sure those who were unable to attend know what was discussed.  During this process, we will be communicating with you regularly.  To ensure that we address all of your questions and concerns along the way, we have designated your Human Resources officers as the point of contact to receive your questions.  Questions of a general nature will be addressed in department-wide communications, and individual concerns will be addressed personally through discussions with HR officers. Employees in Housing Administration may contact Yvonne Forteau or Barbara Cardeli-Arroyo and Residential Education employees may contact Althea Harvey or Dennis Clark.

In closing, we would like to express our appreciation for the fine work you do every day on behalf of the University and our students. You have our gratitude and respect.