THIRTY-FOUR STUDENT WORKERS at Portland State University received sad news this school year: Their jobs at the Office of Information Technology (OIT) were nixed, they were told, because of state budget cuts. Management was apolo- getic—but, in a violation of school policy, they also asked students and staff not to talk to reporters.
That rationale now appears to have been cover for a far more troubling problem, according to sources at PSU. In recent weeks, students and staff have anonymously come forward to reveal OIT is actually facing a $300,000 shortfall of its own doing—the result of sloppy bookkeeping by a recently fired accountant and, apparently, little oversight by managers.
The misdirection added insult to injury, the workers say, since OIT management recently received raises while PSU tuition went up nine percent. What’s more, a spokeswoman for the Oregon University System said that despite the system losing $158 million overall, “that budget crunch has not led to across-the-board cuts in student hours in other universities.”
In mid-December, OIT managers knew they were in trouble. The department runs the computer and audio-visual systems for PSU, Oregon’s largest university. In November, then-OIT Fiscal Officer David Atalig went on leave. Department chief Sharon Blanton took the chance to review his accounting. According to three current workers, she found a $300,000 shortfall. Soon after, Atalig was fired.
Scott Gallagher, a PSU spokesman, didn’t deny the accusations but wouldn’t confirm them either, saying the university doesn’t comment on employment issues absent criminal activity.
After discovering the accounting mistakes, according to emails obtained by the Mercury, the department’s upper management offered different explanations to different people. In a January 19 email to OIT’s non-student staff, Blanton said the shortfall was “over and above” Oregon University System’s statewide hiring freeze and called out Atalig: “Many of you have heard that with the recent departure of our fiscal officer, we have had difficulty sorting out some budget issues.”
But in a February 8 email to student workers, managers reporting to Blanton blamed the job cuts on the state’s hiring freeze. That claim was repeated in a letter to faculty explaining which tech services were being cut.
“In January it became clear that we were in big trouble,” says a non-student staffer, who feared losing her job if she went on record. It surprised staff that PSU’s technology department chose to patch its shortfall by cutting student jobs, especially since students make only $9 to $12.50 an hour. OIT has since rehired 13 former workers through federal work-study—but that may amount to a pay cut, because those students’ hours will now be capped.
No one who spoke with the Mercury is sure exactly where the $300,000 went, or whether it was even there to begin with. Likewise, nobody really knows what Blanton knew about Atalig’s bookkeeping prior to mid-December, but the suspicion in OIT is that she probably signed off on budgets without fully reviewing them.
Several OIT managers declined to comment. Atalig did not return multiple messages requesting an interview, and Blanton responded to specific questions only via general emailed statements. In one email, Blanton points out that OIT is saving PSU $100,000 annually by using Google Docs and offered a new reason for the cuts and layoffs: rising software and hardware costs, and a lack of bond funding.
Another staffer says that he suspected budget problems as long ago as 2007—the staffer had never even been able to get a concrete budget for his department.
“You couldn’t get someone to put a piece of paper with any numbers in front of you—and that is just maddening,” says the staffer.
Don’t forget to mention, of the people that the department kept, they are working at significantly decreased hours. Some people went from 20-25 hours to 5-10 a week.
Something to add – user support services took the brunt of this downsizing (something I find funny about most companies is front line staff always take the lowest pay, the first rounds of layoffs etc – but they are what the outside sees as the company), and I find it odd with the “OIT is saving PSU $100,000 annually by using Google Docs” – if it wasn’t for them it wouldn’t have been a successful transition. As it stands at their current staffing level they probably couldn’t handle the hand holding, training requests, and support calls necessary to make it work.
Management is not talking about this budget problem with their employees.
This morning Blanton’s executive assistant sent this to staff. It does not address the Atalig budget problem but addresses another budget cut.
“All OIT Staff.
We have changed the agenda and purpose of the all-staff meeting on March 19th, to focus on the budget cut news from FADM and the resulting constraints it has on OIT’s fiscal future.
The all-day meeting will be shortened to half-day sessions led by either Sharon or Kirk – two in the morning and two in the afternoon. Each group will meet initially in a conference room for general information and instructions and then divide into break-out groups where you will brainstorm potential ideas for expenditure decreases (services, software, etc) that will most effectively cut 4% – 5% off of our future budget – this is up to $740,000.
Until then, please give some thought to this challenge and be prepared to contribute a few ideas, as we value your creative problem solving skills! To prepare for this event, please thoroughly read the materials at http://www.pdx.edu/budget/2012-2013-academ….
If you would like to submit ideas anonymously before or after the meeting, there will be a secure drop-box for paper suggestions in Susan’s office, or you can confidentially email Brenna, who will compile all feedback into one anonymous document for Sharon.
Session assignments have been randomly selected; please see below for your assigned time/room. I have updated everyone’s calendar to reflect the change.(Ctrl or Command + F to easily find your name) -“
How broke is OUS?
Upper management does not seem to understand the business of OIT. They are too far removed and do not spend enough time in OIT to learn how it really runs from the ground up. There is a huge disconnect between the people who do the work and those that make the decisions. Now they are asking for staff input but is it too late? “… since the vast majority of our expenses are for personnel, any significant reduction in expenditures will require us to carry out our work with fewer people…” (fadm budget planning memo – 2/24/12). OIT does not follow policies and procedures that would keep budgets stable and operating above board. And, there are no consequences for breaking the rules. Disregarding federal, state, OUS and PSU policies is common practice in OIT. One example of this was when a Classified employee was elevated from $40K per year to $70K per year (as one raise event) against the policy and practice applied per the Union contract. Because wage information is available via the PSU Library catalog, many staff now know about this person getting a 75% raise. That has a huge impact on the morale of other staff who have been working for wages far below industry for years AND have exemplary performance appraisals. There is some question about the documented performance of the person who received the huge raise. Even if that person’s performance was of a superstar level, how is a 75% raise ever justified when the department is broke?!
Sharon Blanton made $13,422 per MONTH in 2011. OIT could cut their budget shortfall in half just by letting her go. The way things seem to be going there, a void in “leadership” might almost do them some good.
Don’t you love how much bosses get paid? And we don’t even really need them for the most part. They really don’t do shit for us.