To Emory faculty and
staff members:
During the past two months, this campus community has engaged in
a wide-ranging, intense and important discussion about employee
benefits. We have talked about our resources, our values, our reward
system and the ways we invest in people and keep their trust. We
have had this discussion because of an economic reality now constraining
all of American higher education. That reality is quite different
from what the 1980s and 1990s gave us. For some time, we have confronted
increasing pressures on the budget, even as we have sought to continue
nurturing the extraordinary growth Emory has experienced for 20
years.
I begin this message to you by telling you that the University
is not in a crisis. But the realities with which we are wrestling
are serious. They call for us to take deliberate and thoughtful
actions.
The fiscal concerns that Emory and other institutions are experiencing
are complex; many factors are involved. The most important of them
are external to the institution and have to do with, among other
things, the uneasiness of this countrys financial markets,
the mess in which American health care finds itself, and the Balanced
Budget Amend-ment and the federal governments reduction of
Medicare payments. In short, our current difficulties have not arisen
suddenly, and they will not be amenable to simple solutions. Even
if the recession soon comes to an end, our problems will not go
away. It is not a matter of riding out a brief storm.
Even the most optimistic economic analysts predict that certain
unfortunate trendsin rising health care costs and sluggish
stock market growth, for instancewill persist for several
years. At the same time, we must be committed, along with you, to
building upon the excellence already well established at Emory.
Maintaining this mission will require, from all of us, the most
intelligent analysis of our needs and priorities.
Until recently, in a period of unprecedented growth in national
wealth, we have not had to work as hard at this job as we have had
to think about the best ways to grow as an institution. What we
have done for more than a decade is to strengthen the Universityin
people and buildings. We have marshaled the wealth of our endowment
to form an Emory that is stronger and more eminent than it was just
a few years ago. But the endowment has done all it can to help us
for now; its force is being employed to the maximum.
A number of thoughtful, well-researched and objective proposals
about employee benefits have come forward in our discussionsfrom
the excellent work of the University Senate Fringe Benefits Committee,
to statements by individual faculty and staff members. I thank all
of you who have clung to civility and clear, hard thinking during
this process, as well as those who have continued to hold before
us the moral and emotional dimensions of the subjectthe investment
people make in an institution, which requires, in turn, an investment
in them as people. You have kept the conversation on course and,
thanks to you and your contributions, we have adjusted our various
initial proposals.
We are now refining what will go to the trustees this month. Those
proposals will be different and, I believe, less sweeping than those
first outlined in town hall meetings a month ago. The differences
will have come about as the result of the past two months of conversation
with you.
Although the matter of benefits must be settled finally, our campus
discourse must continue in a better fashion. I am aware that we
have not yet brought to the campus a sufficient understanding of
the endowment, its management, our fund raising successes, the nature
of the health care environment and a range of other factors that
annually affect our thinking about the Universitys financial
health. In the April 15 issue of Emory Report, I will outline
some of these things, so that the budgetary process can become more
transparent.
In the meantime, keep these considerations in mind:
We are a well-endowed institution, but our resources are
nonetheless limited.
We cannot take too much from the present, because we would
thereby hurt the future.
We are not complete masters of our destiny, because factors
beyond our control hold us in their grip.
I welcome continued serious engagement with you about employee
benefits and other matters. I believe we all want the same thingnamely,
a strong and healthy university that carries out its mission and
cares for its people.
Sincerely,
William M. Chace
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