Wednesday, May 09, 2012

"UM Med School to Lay Off Up to 800"

The above-the-fold headline of an article on the front page of this morning's Herald.

The cutback is the largest of any employer in the state since the medical school's campus neighbor, Jackson [Memorial Hospital], announced 920 layoffs in February.

-from the article, but read all of it.

What appears to be happening is that a bloated institution, under pressure from reduced government subsidies, is taking a good look at itself with the help of outside consultants and a new chief operating officer.

More from the article:

Some critics have long warned about looming disaster at the medical school. Last October, car dealer Norman Braman, a long-time UM trustee who has donated more than $5 million to the university, wrote a scathing letter to Leonard Abess, chairman of the board, complaining that “poorly conceived decisions by the medical school administration have put the university at significant risk. ... In the ‘for profit’ world, administrators would have already been fired for repeatedly failing to perform according to stated goals. Unfortunately, this is not the case at UM where people are instead given bonuses and raises as the university gets weaker and weaker.”

(Norman Braman, whom I have not yet had the honor to meet, is one of God's signal blessings on our community.  Wiki has a very inadequate article on him.)

Read more here: http://www.miamiherald.com/2012/05/08/2789495_p2/um-laying-off-800.html#storylink=cpy

2 comments:

mary said...

Interesting. I see than no doctors or nurses who provide clinical care will be among those laid off. Meanwhile, at URMC, they are building more hospital.

Paul Stokes said...

My guess is that URMC has a larger part of its budget met by endowments, foundations, and private giving than does UM. UM therefore relies more heavily on government grants, a source of support under increasing pressure. My guess is also that Greater Miami is simply poorer than Greater Rochester.