Furloughs will become a reality at the University of West Georgia after the most-recent round of cuts from the state.

The Board of Regents approved six furlough days for University System employees and UWG President Dr. Beheruz Sethna announced Friday to staff and faculty that the college plans to close for six days in order to furlough its employees.

In July, in response to dismal revenue income in June, the governor announced 5 percent cuts in state allotments to all agencies and three furlough days for state employees. The cuts would begin in August. In addition, the system was required to submit budgets with 4, 6 and 8 percent cuts.

The Board of Regents had refused up to this point to require the universities within its system to lay off or furlough employees. But this latest budget cut has changed the minds of the regents and Sethna.

“Last year, the chancellor faced a great deal of pressure in the state Legislature because we didn’t have this mass layoffs, and what the legislators sometimes call the blood on the street,” Sethna told the roomful of staff and faculty who assembled to hear the university’s budget plans. “They said, ‘That’s because you’re fat and lazy.’”

Sethna, however, said the reason the university was able to escape layoffs and furloughs was because of good planning. He and the university administrators had things they needed to do throughout the year – maintenance, hiring, buying supplies – that it didn’t do in order to preserve what capital it had. Then when the budget cuts came it was prepared.

“Layoffs are a last resort,” Sethna said. “We do that because of human reason. We do that because that’s the right thing to do. We do that because it helps. It helps to have more people to serve these students.”

That is still Sethna’s preference. But staff and faculty have told him they would accept furloughs in order to preserve their jobs, and so he is working on scheduling them. The university has to cut 5 percent, and the budget it presented for 6 percent cuts includes not only the three furlough days the governor mandated but six days to help cover some of those cuts. He presented two plans to the staff and faculty.

The university cannot close on class days and must take three days before the end of the calendar year on Dec. 31. So, the best scenario is to close on days around a school break. In the first scenario, the school would close an extra day for fall, Thanksgiving, Christmas and spring breaks. The furlough days would be Oct. 16, Nov. 25, Dec. 22 and 23, and March 25 and 26.

The second scenario shuffles the October and March days to Oct. 15 and 16 with just March 26 in the spring break. The second scenario also leaves room for the university to add a seventh furlough day if more cuts are announced later, Sethna said.

There is some flexibility, though. If there is some sort of event scheduled during a mandated furlough day, the university can reschedule furlough days within the same month for a small group of people, Sethna said.

There is one exception to the furloughs. Employees making $23,660 or less at the university will not be required to take furlough days. Those employees will instead have forced vacation days on those days the university will be closed.

The remainder of the 6 percent cuts will be taken from departmental cuts. All departments will receive cuts based on their percentage of the $48.6 million budget, he said.

The teachers among the staff were angry about the cuts. One brought up the hours that she already works off the clock, the same grievance the public school teachers brought up when presented with furloughs. This will affect instruction, she said.

Sethna agreed. The furlough days, he said, are nothing more than a rogue tax.

“This is a rogue tax in a state that swears it will never tax anybody,” Sethna said. “It is a tax on a small segment of the people, not the biggest sector.”