CWU's Layoffs, reduced hours hit home

By Chelsea Krotzer staff writer

ELLENSBURG -- Leslee Caul left work Friday in tears.

Before leaving at her usual time, Caul was called into a meeting at 4 p.m.

She had no idea what the meeting was about - at least not until she walked in the door and saw her supervisor with a member of Central Washington University's Human Resources Department.

"I said ‘So what's it going to be?'" Caul said Tuesday, assuming her hours would be reduced. "Am I going to go from a 12-month position to nine-month cyclical?"

Far from it. Caul's job was terminated, effective June 30.

Caul is one of the 10 to 15 CWU employees laid off from the university to compensate for an additional $2.9 million cut in state funding. Another 175 of her fellow employees will have their hours reduced.

Today, CWU staff will learn more about the cuts and the future of the university during a 1 p.m. budget forum with President James Gaudino in the Student Union Theater.

Losing it

"I was just honestly a little hysterical," Caul said about receiving the news. "All I could do was cry."

Caul cried as her career as the director of marketing and development for the Theater Arts Department came to a halt. Just months ago, Caul received a pin celebrating 15 years on the job. Now she has to find boxes to move those years of memories out of her office.

She just purchased a home on Parklane Avenue in November, a home she says she can no longer afford with her only source of income gone. She is saddened by the friends and family she may have to leave behind to search for another job in a market hesitant to hire.

She saw her life falling apart.

"I'm not just losing my job, I'm losing my home and community," Caul said, her eyes watering. "I was told my position was vital to the department, assured the cuts wouldn't go that deep ... that I had too much seniority, that I was too essential."

Caul wasn't alone.

Over the past two weeks, about 180 of CWU's classified staff and exempt employees - secretaries, custodians, administrators and office managers - have been informed that their lives would change.

Public affairs liaison Linda Schactler said the university isn't finished delivering the bad news.

"They're not quite done," Schactler said Tuesday night. "There might be a couple more out there, but I don't know. All I really know is about my division, and I know we are done ... I hope we are done."

Schactler said Becky Watson, director of public relations and marketing, also was among those laid off.

Watson received the news Tuesday afternoon. The meeting had been on her calendar for days. She thought she would be discussing the university's budget, not her job.

"I was prepared to talk about the university's budget," Watson said just hours after receiving the news. "When I saw the HR representative, I knew..."

Watson said her division received reduced hours just two weeks ago.

"That made it more unexpected," Watson said, who has been with the university almost five years.

The reduced hours just weren't enough, Schactler said. The division, which is composed of the recently combined public relations and marketing and university advancement divisions, had to cut $300,000 from the budget.

"Most of what we do here, like any business, is salary and benefits," Schactler said. "The president also wanted to create a better structure and more efficiency ... it was believed (Watson's) position could be accomplished with fewer resources."

Reduced hours

The bulk of the employees affected by the budget cuts are having hours reduced.

Nan Doolittle, program coordinator of the university's Family Resource Center since 2008, will see 40 percent of her paycheck disappear after June 30.

Doolittle now works five days a week, eight hours a day providing resources, programs and seminars for parent students. After the reduced hours take effect, she will be in the office three days a week.

Instead of being angry, she's relieved.

"They haven't cut goods and services for the Family Resource Center," Doolittle said. "That means we can hopefully hire student employees when I'm not here - one to two employees and a graduate student. I'm not as depressed as I was when I first heard the news."

Doolittle said she cares more about the program, not her paycheck. Her husband, another CWU employee, still has his job. She sees the reduced hours as an opportunity to explore other options.

"I'm actually excited for myself going down to three days a week," Doolittle said, who will now spend more time on an expressive arts therapy class at Alley Cat Artists. "It's not entirely a tragedy for me, but I'm worried about the FRC."

Second job

Mary Makins, a senior secretary in the Theater Arts Department, has been with the university for five years.

Her hours are being reduced by 11 days. She will work 11.5 months instead of 12 months a year. She is one of three people in the theater department who either had hours reduced or was laid off.

"It's very frustrating to say the least," Makins said. "It has a devastating effect on people's lives."

Makins said she was given the news Monday during a group meeting with her fellow members of the Public School Employees of Washington union - mainly secretaries and fiscal tech personnel from the College of Arts and Humanities.

"Out of 130 PSE members, 60 were given a reduction of hours and two were laid off, which is nearly 50 percent of the PSE members," Makins said.

Makins said the PSE members wanted to have the university treat them equally, giving all 130 members reduced hours by 5.92 days - a number Makins said the university gave them.

"Then they told us that wouldn't work," Makins said. "That was the information that was presented to us by (the university) that would be something that would help us avoid layoffs and the 11 days of unpaid leave."

With a single income and a college-aged niece and nephew to care for, Makins said she will have to find a second job.

"There were so many choices about how these cuts could have been made, and there are many ways to look at balancing the budget," Makins said. "I realize it's a complex picture and not an easy call to make, but it looks like it's on the backs of the civil service and exempt staff."