Ohio University is short at least 16 employees this year because of layoffs, but 14 more eluded unemployment after moving to vacant job slots within the university.
One faculty member and 13 classified employees were re-assigned to new jobs throughout the university after being laid off from their former positions, said Gwen Brooks, director of employment and recruitment in OU's Human Resources department.
Brooks helped to pinpoint and hold the new positions for the 14 laid-off employees. In many cases, administrative assistants were shifted to similar positions in new departments.
As positions became vacant during the year - people retiring or going to another employer - Human Resources
in anticipation that it would be a very difficult budget year worked hard to keep positions opened Becky Watts, chief of staff to OU President Roderick McDavis, said in June. So when these layoffs happened
there would be a place for a person whose position was eliminated. (Brooks) was being considerate about ways she could make it possible to hold vacancies in anticipation that people could move into those
and it worked.
The coordination between the employees' current and new departments, as well as human resources, made the relocated jobs possible, Brooks said,
Classified Senate offered a mentoring program for the transplanted employees, all of whom are becoming settled in their new positions, she added.
From the (employees) I've heard from
the transition was a good one
she said. I haven't heard from everyone
but I've heard all positive comments.
All the employees moving into new positions this year will have the same salaries as last year.
OU will save more than $887,000 because of the recent layoffs, based on last year's salaries, Brooks said. An additional 56 vacant positions, which were still budgeted last year, will be eliminated as well, saving the university another $1.8 million, she said.
An additional 11 employees who were to be laid off received instructional capacity funds set aside by OU Executive Vice President and Provost Pam Benoit that allowed them to remain in their original positions, Brooks said.
For at least one employee, leaving a position wasn't bad news.
I volunteered for a layoff; I asked if I could be laid off
said Sherri Crabtree, a former business analyst in OU's Office of Information Technology.
Crabtree is using the three years of waived tuition offered through OU's reduction-in-force policy to study social work here. She is currently a full-time student.
For me
(being laid off) wasn't a shock - it was a conversation
she said. With the university doing the layoffs and the fact that I wanted to return to school anyway
