June 1, 2011
www.gfb.org
Vol. 29 No. 22
BUDGET REDUCTIONS FORCE CAES TO CUT 18 POSITIONS, SELL FARM In the latest round of downsizing due to the ongoing state budget crisis, the University of Georgia College of Agricultural and Environmental Sciences is terminating18 employees and putting a 522-acre research farm on the market. All 18 of the positions eliminated were staff, according to CAES Dean Dr. Scott Angle, who said he was not allowed to lay off faculty. Most of the positions cut were technical positions on farms and about one-third were administrative, secretarial support positions. Angle said three of the 18 employees will remain employed by having their salaries funded by contracts or grants. The college is closing its peach research facility at Byron, Ga., and pecan pest management, horticulture research and plant pathology programs in Tifton. Other staff layoffs are on the Griffin and Athens campuses. Angle said the college administration worked hard during the past three budget cycles to avoid laying off employees, but the latest cut to the college’s budget, set to go into effect for the new fiscal year beginning July 1, required layoffs. “The second half of the story is we’ve lost about 340 of our faculty and staff over the last couple of years through natural attrition and incentives to retire. Overall, we’re looking at 355 individuals that were around a couple of years ago that are not around today,” Angle said. The college is also accepting sealed bids on its 522-acre Plant Sciences Farm in Watkinsville, Ga., where variety testing and development research has been conducted on cotton and grain production specifically for north Georgia. “We need that research to be done up in that part of the state because it’s location testing. We’re going to move some of it to the horticulture farm, which is just a few miles away. We’re going to move some of it to a farm we have in Eatonton, which is about 25 miles away,” Angle said. Bids will be accepted for the Plant Sciences Farm until June 27. “If we don’t get any bids that we consider to be adequate, then we’ll stop the process and it won’t be sold. We’ll either continue to use it as we are or rent it out to someone.” The CAES previously accepted bids on its Redbud Farm in north Georgia but ended up leasing it rather than selling it, Angle said, and a parcel of about 100 acres that the CAES owns in Griffin is under negotiation. “We have downsized in a way that I think will allow us to continue with areas where we’re strong, but frankly, we’ve had to give up a few things,” Angle said. “We’re going to have to look at the next couple of years to try to enhance our budget not to where we used to be but try to get some of it back to continue to try to do some things that are pretty important to the state.”