The University of Arizona — Southern Arizona’s largest employer — usually adds scores of employees to its payroll every year, but that wasn’t the case this year in the wake of a major state funding cut.
The UA, which typically adds the equivalent of about 150 to 200 full-time employees a year, started this school year by slashing jobs instead.
A total of 320 positions were eliminated, including 44 that involved layoffs. Most were funded with state money, and cutting those jobs enabled the UA to trim $21 million from the state-funded portion of its budget, officials said.
But state funding, which used to provide a major chunk of UA’s total income, now only accounts for about 15 percent, said Allison Vaillancourt, the UA’s head of human resources. Much of the school’s revenue comes from other sources such as research grants, bookstore profits and tuition.
The UA ended up adding jobs in areas supported by non-state funds, Vaillancourt said.
Overall, the UA ended up adding the equivalent of 16 more full-time positions this school year, bringing the total to 11,250 compared to 11,234 last year.
It isn’t clear yet whether slow job growth will continue in future years.
Gov. Doug Ducey‘s proposal for the next state budget calls for restoring less than 10 percent of the $99 million cut that the university system (also including Arizona State and Northern Arizona universities) took last year, but lawmakers may have other ideas.
“I don’t have a reliable crystal ball,” said Vaillancourt, “but if research grants and student enrollment continue to grow as they have in the past, we will need to increase staff to meet these needs.”
