By DAVID DUPONT
BG Independent News
The Bowling Green State University trustees meeting virtually in special session approved a furlough policy for the university as it deals with the financial fallout from the coronavirus pandemic.
Sheri Stoll, the vice president for financial affairs and the chief financial officer, said the action was necessary because the policy approved back in 2009 during the recession was not codified in the university’s policy registry during a subsequent administrative transition.
The measure allows the university to furlough workers during times of emergency, including during periods of infectious diseases. Furloughs are unpaid employee leaves of absence from work for specified periods of time while retaining health and other benefits.
It would not apply to faculty who are covered by the union contract.
President Rodney Rogers said any inclusion of the faculty in the furlough would require a negotiated agreement. “Very preliminary discussions” between the administration and the BGSU-Faculty Association have occurred, he said.
After the meeting, David Jackson, president of the BGSU-Faculty Association, clarified that those discussions “have nothing to do with furloughs.” Faculty members “are exempt from furloughs.”
The union and the university have already reached a memorandum of understanding on benefits for qualified rank faculty (formerly non-tenure track faculty) with three or fewer years of BGSU service who may be laid off.
The university is facing likely 20 percent cuts for the remainder of this years and next year in state funding, as well as lower enrollment, which means less revenue from tuition.
Stoll said that in 2009 when employees were furloughed, a tiered system was employed with those on the lower end of the pay scale furloughed for fewer days while “those of us on the higher end” having more days off payroll.
That would need to be decided later.
In a related action, the trustees approved splitting the university into employment units for the purpose of furloughing employees.
This legal tool was brought to the university’s attention by its new legal counsel Natalie Jackson, Stoll said.
The policy divides the university into: The Bowling Green campus education and general budgets units; Firelands education and general budget units; and all auxiliary budget-supported units.
This will allow furloughs to applied differently for those different units, Stoll said.
The trustees also approved two investment related items. One allows the university’s fund manager to balance the university’s portfolio to increase its holdings slightly in higher earning but higher risk equities.
The university, Stoll said, is seeking ways to improve returns without taking on additional risks and protecting it from the volatility of the stock market.
The second allows for investment in the Apollo Total Return Fund, and the shifting of investment funds needed to make that move. The Apollo fund’s strategy is in line with the investment strategy approved in the earlier resolution.
