Clapacs: No jobs will be cut

IU vice president and chief administrative officer Terry Clapacs said he does not foresee the University being forced to cut jobs to make up for budget cuts. He also said that concerns among staff employees and unions around campus were not justified "at this point."\n"What we're doing is simply going through a typical management review of our operations which, frankly, organizations do regularly," Clapacs said. "There is no predetermined outcome to this review."\nClapacs also downplayed his remarks on outsourcing to the board of trustees at their April meeting. He said that the board asked whether his office was doing all it could to cut costs through outsourcing. \n"I thought my answer was yes," Clapacs said.\nThe point of his remarks was to underscore that the University was already outsourcing many jobs and services, not that it is needed to outsource more of them, he said.\nClapacs' report to the trustees, where he named Guy DeStafano his staff's "outsourcing czar," has made many service employees at IU nervous, said Dallas Murphy, president of the American Federation of State and County Municipal Employees, Local 832.\n"People right now are on pins and needles about their jobs," Murphy said.\nTalk of cost cutting comes as the University is facing a $4.7 million cut in state appropriations. But Clapacs said IU isn't always looking for the cheapest way to provide non-academic services.\n"It is not just a matter of the lowest price," he said. "It is a matter of the best service and sometimes the best service doesn't always come at the lowest price."\nFor example, Clapacs said, IU employs some of the best craftspeople available in Bloomington and the University has no reason to change that.\nIU's examination of outsourcing also works both ways, he said. The University will also be examining whether services it is currently outsourcing are as efficient as providing the services in-house.