Dear University of Rochester Faculty and Staff,
As we near the end of a tumultuous and difficult year, we want to provide a status report on the University’s financial position and offer some thoughts about the road ahead.
Although uncertainty remains an overriding factor in our current financial situation, we are looking forward to 2021 with gratitude and optimism. We are not through this pandemic yet, but there is the promise of an end in sight. We are already beginning to take steps toward financial recovery, starting this month with the reinstatement of the wage compression program, an investment in our staff that will help us move toward more equitable treatment of our valued employees. We are also developing guidance to adjust our current hiring freeze policy to allow strategic hires and replacement hiring, subject to available school or unit budget resources. We have been able to move forward on certain strategic capital projects for which we could obtain financing, and are evaluating other projects on a case by case basis.
We can all take pride in accomplishing things in the last ten months that would have been unimaginable only a year ago. And now we have vaccines – several of which our Medical Center helped to bring into being through late-stage testing. So it’s possible to start looking forward to a time when we can focus more fully on non-COVID institutional priorities, working to make our University ever better; a time when we can again enjoy the simple things we have missed, like a shared meal with colleagues or with family and friends.
We know the salary and retirement benefit reductions that were implemented at the start of the fiscal year represent a hardship for many of you, and we are committed to moving as quickly as we can to reduce or eliminate all of those reductions. We review our financial position regularly so that we can prioritize making these moves, and if financial conditions enable us to do so, we hope to be able to partially restore benefits for all faculty and staff at the University during this fiscal year. We’re grateful for the wise counsel of the Faculty Salary Reduction Advisory Committee and the URMC COVID-19 Recovery Task Force in this regard.
Our financial situation does remain uncertain, however. Although the Medical Center saw its clinical volumes return to normal much sooner than expected and its revenues exceed expectations after the first COVID surge, the second surge of COVID that the Rochester region is now experiencing may create new financial pressures on our clinical budget. Similarly, although we recently completed a successful hybrid residential semester for our undergraduate students, there were a smaller number of students enrolled and a smaller number of students in residence on campus, so that tuition, room, and board revenues were all lower than usual. We do not yet know how the current COVID surge may affect enrollments and revenues in the second semester. In addition, global travel constraints caused by the pandemic may prevent students from attending some on-campus graduate-level programs. These and other factors put pressure on our academic budget.
Over the last few months, we have been working together across all of our academic, administrative, and clinical units to mitigate the impacts of these budgetary pressures. Some of these pressures are temporary: they will resolve as the COVID pandemic subsides. Some of these financial pressures extend beyond the pandemic to the University more broadly – and to higher education in general. We are committed to the long-term financial health of our institution, and are always seeking ways to reduce expenses and increase revenues.
Despite all of these pressures and uncertainties, we are optimistic about the future. We are also full of gratitude for our present. And our gratitude begins with all of you.
We have heard the testimonies of the nurses and doctors and professors and support staff and others who have worked heroically to keep our University moving forward during the pandemic. Your stories of the last ten months are often difficult to hear. Your exhaustion is palpable, which is no surprise given all of the added responsibilities this pandemic has bestowed on every one of us. Many of us find ourselves with two or three new jobs – on top of the one job we already had – and on top of the added burden of concern for our children, our families, our colleagues, our students, and our patients. And now we have asked you to find your second wind, when it’s more likely that you’re already on your third or fourth – or fifth.
We applaud your commitment and we marvel at your resilience and strength. We thank you for bearing the sacrifices created by this year and for rising up to meet so many unexpected challenges. We will provide another financial update in February. In the meantime, as we look forward – with optimism! – to 2021, we wish all of you happiness and continued good health.
Sincerely,
Sarah C. Mangelsdorf
President and G. Robert Witmer, Jr. University Professor
Robert Clark
Provost and Senior Vice President for Research
Mark B. Taubman
Dean and CEO, University of Rochester Medical Center
Holly G. Crawford
Senior Vice President for Administration and Finance, CFO, and Treasurer