When it comes to layoffs on campus, "There will be fewer job actions than I originally feared," said President David Skorton at the Employee Assembly (EA) meeting May 19 in Day Hall. An estimate of how many layoffs to expect will be announced in coming weeks, but they will not all occur at once.

For the past couple of years Cornell has had on average about 25 percent more layoffs than in previous years, said Mary George Opperman, vice president for human resources, adding that she expects about the same percentage of layoffs in fiscal year 2011 as occured in 2010. Still unknown, she said, is the effect of cuts in the New York state budget on Cornell's staffing levels. But, even so, "when you lay off one person, as far as I'm concerned, that makes it a bad year."

Most of the questions raised at the May 19 EA meeting with Opperman and Skorton, who meet with the EA twice a semester, concerned layoffs, workloads and recent actions in the Russian and Theatre, Film and Dance departments.

Reiterating his appreciation for how Cornell staff have handled the uncertainties brought about by the financial situation, Skorton admitted that it is a "tough time ... overall, things cannot stay the same." But, he said, it is important that Cornell have robust arts and humanities programs, and there will always be core strengths in Slavic languages.

At several points in the discussion, Skorton expressed concern that, in general, people are doing the same work or more than they did in the past. "We have not figured that out yet," Skorton said.

He also acknowledged the role of grants in the careers of graduate students and recognized that the availability of staff resources can affect those grants.

Opperman said that it will be the responsibility of leadership at all levels to plan work so that it is aligned with the number of people in the department available to do it.

In response to questions about communicating change, Opperman acknowledged that it is easier to communicate change when the discussion is more abstract, rather than once the change makes an impact on people. Skorton noted that the shared governance system provides some two-way conversation but does not penetrate deep enough into individual departments. Jason Seymour, EA's outgoing chair, noted that the EA is planning on changing its structure to help facilitate that level of communication.