Paine College to Impement $2.4 Million in Cuts
According to an article appearing in the Augusta Chronicle and the Atlanta Journal-Constitution, Dr. Bradley has announced that the college will implement furlough days, salary reductions and layoffs to save $2.4 million over the next fiscal year. (College outlines $2.4 million in cuts) That amounts to roughly 10% of the college’s annual budget. According to the press release by Bradley, the cuts are necessary due to funding changes in federal and state financial aid programs to students and not to his ineptitude and mismanagement of the college’s fiscal affairs. Yet football, which according to some sources is losing hundreds of thousands of dollars annually, in the form of staff salaries, scholarships, equipment costs, travel and lodging, and other operating expenses, remains fully funded.
Looks like football is winning the race for funding dollars at Paine College. Apparently, Dr. Bradley has chosen to de-fund faculty and staff salaries, employee pensions, and other essential expenditures critical to the educational mission of the college in favor of fully funding a fledgling football program. (Expectations low for Paine football team) Currently, football is a drag on the budget of the college. Consequently, we ask how can one justify defunding the core educational mission of the college in favor of extracurricular discretionary activities that add red ink to the bottom line of the financial statement. Particularly, at a time when the college is in a fight for its existence financially and from an accreditation standpoint where the accrediting agency has cited sound financial management as a standard of accreditation which Paine fails to meet. It makes no sense to us. Only a person oblivious to the world of finance and money management would countenance such a course of action.
We Ask ….
Question #1: Should a person with little to no financial acumen be at the helm of running a college in today’s challenging economic environment?
Question #2: Who is the chief financial officer of Paine College and what is her background, accomplishments, and experience? Or do we even need to bother to find out because she is another in a long line of short timers, just warming a seat, waiting for the Bradley ax to fall on her like it did on her 4 predecessors.
P.S. – Odessa you are so right …
Question #3: How much of a salary reduction will Dr. George and Tina Bradley impose on themselves? Or is that a stupid question?
The Paine Project 
One more cut should be included: his salary.
Odessa Hooker â51
It is interesting that Paine College is announcing $2.4M in cuts. These budget cuts are significant, and I would not be surprised if the entire Board of Trustees were apprised or involved in the planning of these cuts. By the way, no one has seen the plan related to the cuts. Are the $2.4M in cuts will be incurred in this fiscal year or spread of a number of years? Also, how will this impact the delivery of academic programs and administrative services?
However, there is no discussion about growing revenues. The Office of the President, Institutional Advancement and the Board of Trustees are responsible for raising money for most higher education institutions. At Paine College, the amount of non-Government contribution has been decreasing during Bradley’s administration. The Board raises very little, the Office of the President raises even less and Institutional Advancement under Brandon Brown’s watch appears to be enjoying themselves at social functions and doing little of nothing else.
With a President that rarely makes any public appearances and a Board that is sleepwalking, $2.4M (if this is truly an accurate number) in cuts would not be necessary if private contributions were growing. This is obviously not a concern for the current leadership, and will never be a concern for them. After all, who is going to hold them accountable?
I am a faculty member at Paine, and, for obvious reasons, would like to remain anonymous. In ALL of the explanations made by the former president abd Dr, Sullivan about the faculty’s and the staff’s loss in salary, it is TELLING that not ONCE have I heard them say something to this effect: we know that some of your are suffering, and as soon as the college regains its footing, the administration will try to restore some of the funds that we took from your salary, funds that, for some of you are essential.
We (faculty and staff) have not had a raise in nearly 10 years or even more, I don’t remember. Some of us were already teetering on the brink of finanacial ruin:inability to pay bills, buy medicine, buy food, etc. To then take from what little we had is devastating for a number of us, making bill paying, and medicine, food and other essentials A PERPETUAL HARDSHIP and WORRY! I didn’t get a number of college degrees to wind up having to make a choice between food and medicine and gas, etc. What was lacking in ALL the administration said? This: empathy, decency – the acknowledgement, obvious to the whole world, that faculty and staff did not mismanage the money. Therefore the administration should not be so foolishly cavalier in thinking that faculty and staff should replace that money!
Please don’t get me wrong! I BELIEVE in sacrifice. Don’t forget the unspoken ETHIC in education: You should be HAPPY to work devotedly, and NOT get paid for the work you do. I, along with other education employees, adopted that ethic – unspoken but FULLY in effect. I have given hours…weeks…maybe even months of unpaid service in education. What I find arrogant in the expressions of Paine College administrators is the intimation that they DESERVE to confiscate our salary! Again, not ONCE did I hear ANYTHING to the effect that we will try to restore some of the funds that we have deprived you of when, and only when, the college regains its footing. These words COST NOTHING…the college may take years, decades to regain financial stability. The ONLY thing these few words would cost administrators is this: 1. Genuine care for the increased hardship furloughs have caused (not to speak of the other draconian “RIGHT” practices employed). 2. The BELIEF that professors and staff do not OWE the college their salary, especially when they are not reponsible for the sad and sorry money management. 3. Decency.
Had we had a raise in all these years, the confiscation of our salary (we had already budgeted the year on the money our contracts promised us…OWWW) would have been less of an imposition, although it would have still been hurtful to the less well off of us.