“No More Pencils No More Books … Out For Summer Out Till Fall We Might Not Come Back At All”

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bandarqI’m not talking about Alice Cooper or the movement toward digital literacy here. No, I’m talking about Governor Rell’s announcement that she is freezing “all nonessential state purchases for the next four months—including pens [and] paper.”

Wednesday’s Hartford Courant reported that Governor Rell has frozen spending on everything from cleaning products for restrooms and service contracts for office machines to pens, paper, and paperclips. This freeze will remain for the next four months, or until the end of the fiscal and school year. This ban includes the University of Connecticut. We can use whatever office supplies we currently possess, but once they are gone we cannot replace them till July 1. Because this decree is new, it is unclear whether the CWP or any other university aktivitas can use grant, endowment, or discretionary funds for supplies. I suspect we will learn that we are permitted to do so within certain parameters and only with administrative permission.

After Governor Rell banned the use of state funds for out of state travel, the university responded by placing strict limits on the use of grants, endowments, and discretionary funds to make up for the loss. The CWP receives state funding through the English Department, but we also receive a core grant of federal funds from the NWP, we generate our own discretionary funds from professional development, and we have access to funding from the Aetna Chair of Writing that is at the discretion of the Aetna Advisory Board. At first, it seemed that we would simply have to rely on these sources for out of state travel, but now if we want to use those funds we have to receive written permission from the English department head, the CLAS dean, and in some cases one of the provosts, as well. This permission is ostensibly to ensure that such travel is essential, but realistically it appears to have much to do with public relations.

What this means for the CWP is that if we want to use NWP funds or our own PD revenue to travel later this month to the New England Writing Projects Conference in Northampton, Massachusetts, or in early April to the NWP’s Spring Meeting in Washington, DC to lobby for reauthorization of funding for the NWP, we have to get permission from three levels of university administration. Ironically, the permission form has not been made available online, so everyone who wants to get permission to use non-state funds to travel outside of Connecticut has to inundate the offices of the deans and provosts with written forms that we may no longer be allowed to use state money to purchase the paper on which to print the forms! We may even find ourselves in a situation where we have to complete written forms to request permission to use federal grant money to purchase the paper to print the forms. Got it? That’s exactly how it has felt lately.

I’m being facetious, of course. I understand the complexity of the current situation, and sincerely believe that the deans and provosts generally are well intentioned, even when I disagree. (Although I don’t think I can express the same generosity of spirit toward the governor’s office). Part of the perkara in Connecticut is an ideological split between the Democratic and Republican responses to the economic crisis. On the one hand, we have a Democratic administration in Washington responding to the crisis by spending money to stimulate the economy, and on the other hand we have a Republican administration in Hartford responding to the crisis by rescinding money and freezing expenditures to tame the economy. The other factor in Connecticut is the Balanced Budget Law, which has been in place since 1992. This law amended the state constitution to require that “general budget expenditures authorized for any fiscal year shall not exceed the estimated amount of revenue for such fiscal year.” So even if Governor Rell were an economic liberal, it could be argued that she’d be violating the state constitution if she authorized spending that exceeds revenue. Now if I’m reading the law correctly, the governor and legislature would not actually be violating the constitution by allowing the state to go into deficit this year, as the authorized spending was based on estimated revenue. Where we’d be in trouble, however, would be next year when the estimated revenues would be much less and the budget would have to enact dramatic cuts in expenditures. It could be argued that Rell sees her current rescissions and freezes as preparation for that likelihood.

However, it seems to me that many of the orders that come down from on high seem short-sighted and ill-considered. I know wasteful spending exists and some cuts have to be made, but what is gained by making us fill out forms to get permission to use non-state funds to travel? Those funds already have limits placed on them. In the case of the NWP funds, there is an Office of Sponsored Programs and a grant manager who regulate these limits. This form just becomes a waste of state funds as we all spend time on the forms when we could and should be doing other things—like teaching. And what is the wisdom of freezing expenditures on things like service contracts or cleaning products? This way, when the copier breaks we’ll have to buy a new one, and when the bathrooms become disgusting after four months without proper cleaning we’ll be in violation of OSHA regulations!

OK, I know I’m just starting to rant. These are difficult times and everyone in an administrative position has had to make tough decisions, the CWP included, but we have to put a little more thought and creativity into how to save money, rather than just make sweeping decrees like across the board cuts and complete freezes, or implement cosmetic and inefficient responses like triplicate forms. There’s just got to be a better way.