By Signe K. Skinion

A recent budget proposal presented to the SIU Board of Turstees is causing disagreement between the University chancellor and president on whether it will cause an SIUC hiring freeze.

SIUC Chancellor John Guyon said he is currently discussing the issue of a University-wide hiring freeze with faculty members because of the budget proposal.

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I talked with the budget committee today (Monday), Guyon said. I will be talking with the deans tomorrow and constingency heads on Wednesday, and that topic (hiring freeze) will be under discussion.

Guyon said there are no hard figures to work with yet because the comple calculations of SIU President Ted Sanders’ budget proposal have not been made. But he said the proposed budget may cause a hiring freeze because of strain it puts on the funding process of University programs.

The numbers come from a percentage of the base budget of the University, and we have not multiplied that out yet, Guyon said.

But Sanders said a hiring freeze may be necessary because of a decline in SIUC enrollment not because of his budget.

Nothing in this set of guidelines calls for a hiring freeze, Sanders said. But SIUC is facing an enrollment problem, and that will require some changes before the end of fiscal year 1996. Because of this decline, any number of options are possible, including a hiring freeze.

Sanders said he is not asking for a hiring freeze but cannot speak for other officials.

Guyon may well recommend a hiring freeze, but that would be to meet the declining enrollment, Sanders said.

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Part one of Sanders’ proposal deals with setting aside a portion of the budget for changing or improving campus goals. Part two puts aside some of the budget to be saved in case some emergency arises during the middle of the school year. Part three deals with taking some of the budget for replacing and renewing equipment, and for book value of the equipment.

Also, part three would allocate additional money to professional and curricular development each year.

William Karrow, Graduate and Professional Student Council president, who met with Guyon Monday, said these changes in the budgeting procedure may cause problems for students attending the University.

It’s a nightmare, and no one seems to have the answers, Karrow said. At a meeting with Chancellor John Guyon, he (Guyon) said that to cover parts one through three on the proposal, the University will have to come up with between $30 and $40 million to cover the budget changes.

Guyon denied ever saying that the proposed budget would cost the University an additional $30 to $40 million for one year.

We talked about the budget and the planning, Guyon said. Item three is not reasonable to do in a one-year period, but a five to six year period is what we’re looking at with those figures.

Karrow said these changes in University structure will cause drastic changes in the University’s makeup, including a possible hiring freeze on faculty.

If the board passes this proposal, there will have to be a hiring freeze, and some faculty and staff will have to be fired to get the money needed to implement these changes, Karrow said.

Also, when I talked with Guyon, he said there is a hiring freeze being worked on right now through his department.

Karrow said the biggest problem with Sanders’ proposal is the lack of information being released by University officials.

Currently, the University is trying to increase enrollment when they are trying to decrease everything else, Karrow said. All I have been told is that changes have to be made, the budget has to be cut and no one knows where this money is going to come from.

Karrow said if this proposal passes and a hiring freeze occurs, undergraduates will find it harder to graduate in four years.

He said because there will not be as many teachers after a hiring freeze, the semester schedules will have to be changed to meet the smaller faculty numbers, and students will find fewer classes being offered.

Scott Pfeiffer, Undergraduate Student Government chief of staff, said he was at the meeting with Guyon, but in his opinion everything is still open to change.

We (student government) don’t have a huge amount of time to work on this proposal, Pfeiffer said. We were told that within the next two to three weeks we should go to our constituents with this proposal and these changes and get reactions.

Karrow said he will continue to try to get answers to his questions regarding the budget.

Until someone decides to give me the answers, there is nothing I can do except guess and urge everyone to voice their opinions to me, to Sanders, to Guyon and to the board, Karrow said. These changes can’t be done in one year, but we only have a month to try and do anything.

The SIU Board of Trustees is scheduled to vote on the proposal March 14 at the Carbondale campus.