Colleges now face furloughs

Administrators at area colleges scrambled Wednesday to figure out how to implement Gov. Sonny Perdue's latest budget cut - 5 percent less in state funding, along with instructions to furlough employees for three days before the end of the calendar year.

But administrators still have more questions than answers about how the furloughs will work.

"We're not exactly sure of the parameters," said Tim Burgess, UGA's senior vice president for finance and administration. "It's kind of piecemeal at this point."

Officials don't have the answers to many questions. Will the furloughs affect part-time and temporary workers as well as full-time employees? Student workers? Will lower-paid workers, who need the money more, have to take the same number of unpaid days off as faculty members and administrators who make $100,000 or more? Will administrators be forced to lay off some workers permanently in addition to ordering furloughs?

And how will furlough days be scheduled so that absences don't affect the smooth running of the university?

UGA police officers likely won't be furloughed on the same schedule as professors, physical plant workers or student activities workers, Burgess said.

UGA Staff Council President Stuart Ivy hopes the university follows the example set by the Technical College System of Georgia last year, when the system's central office and some of its colleges used furloughs to save money.

At the technical college system's central office, higher-paid workers took three days off without pay, while lower-paid workers only had to go one day without pay, said technical college system spokesman Mike Light.

Days off without pay will hurt lower-paid workers more, Ivy said.

"When you get down to $20,000 or $30,000 (annual salary), furloughing them three days doesn't help (the state budget) a whole lot, and it hurts them a lot," Ivy said.

Three days' pay is a little more than 1 percent of a worker's annual wages. One percent of annual pay for a $20,000 cafeteria worker would save the state a

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