To:                   The St. Lawrence Community
From:              William L. Fox, President
Date:               May 17, 2010
Subject:          Saturday’s Board of Trustees Meeting

I know that you are aware of our Board of Trustees’ meeting this weekend and that a number of important financial planning issues were considered. I hasten to write now with a quick update.

We presented to the Board a preliminary plan to achieve the beginning of financial equilibrium and a balanced budget for 2010-2011. We have reported for many weeks that our budget needed to reduce our current personnel costs by $1.8 million; you have seen this campus forums and in earlier memos I have sent.  The Board has endorsed our overall approach.

Now that we have the Board’s good counsel, we will continue our careful analysis of the details in our plan. Those details, however, may change over the next week or so as our Early Retirement Incentive Program closes on May 21 and, then, we assess results from that special initiative. I plan to share the general results of the early retirement program with you the week of May 24. We’ll also analyze savings from other attrition of positions that have occurred since last July or will occur before June 30, from reductions in areas that are not related to positions, and from anticipated involuntary separations. 

Thus, our plan is still a work-in-progress and I ask your continued patience and understanding while all the variables are measured. By June 1, we will have our planning completed.  We will schedule meetings with managers for June 1 to help them understand the process, we will communicate with directly affected employees on June 2, then send a campus communication after all directly affected individuals have been notified. On June 3, we’ll have two opportunities for campus-wide discussion, opportunities that I will lead.  Information about times and locations will be shared soon.

The Board and I appreciate your extraordinary assistance in this important work.