When the economy is rough, pay cuts seem predictable. But how often do people volunteer to take them?

The University’s Office of Human Resources is asking full-time administrative and library faculty to consider taking such action. In exchange for a salary reduction, employees receive unpaid days off. Those who choose to participate find time to attend to personal needs.

“The message that we’re attempting to send out obviously is, ‘we’re in tight budget times, if there’s something that we can do to help you personally that might also help us as an institution, it’s an option that’s available,'” said Rebecca Ferguson, Assistant Vice President for Human Resources. “This program has assisted in a real interesting way from the stand point of family needs and completion of dissertation work.”

The program, currently in its second year, is not attempting to cause strife within offices.

“First it has to be something that works within your office,” said William Arnold, Executive Assistant to the Vice President for Student Affairs. “You have to get your supervisor’s approval to be able to do it.”

Arnold, who took advantage of the program this summer, was able to not only work on his doctoral degree in higher education administration, but also spend time with his 6- month-old daughter.

“Fortunately for me, this summer, it worked out in our office where the workload was such that it was conducive for me to be able to do this,” Arnold said. “I know that there have been times in the past that there would have been no way that this would have been feasible.”

According to Arnold, because of the timing, it was easy for his office to adjust.

“Some of the responsibilities that I have are more targeted toward the school year months and in the summer those things aren’t going on as much,” Arnold said. “Some of the responsibilities that I had in the office, other staff members picked up.”

Though time off to attend to personal needs is a powerful incentive, this program isn’t for everyone.

“If we were looking at the economy of 3 years ago where things were just booming, if that would have been made available, there would probably be more people who would have thought about taking advantage of it,” Arnold said. “Obviously, one of the incentives for the institution is to have some salary savings, but I think it’s a personal decision to do it.”

Though less than a dozen full-time faculty members have chosen to participate, the numbers are expected to rise.

“We expect that we’ll see an increase, we’re anticipating that we also may see an increase in numbers next year,” Ferguson said. According to Arnold, the program has been beneficial.

“I really feel very fortunate that the University had that policy in place and that my supervisor was willing to let me take advantage of it,” Arnold said. “It’s nice to have that option if it doesn’t hurt the University.”

This program is just one of the ways the University is attempting to reduce expenses and help faculty members.

“The budget is not stabilized yet and therefore, we’re just continuing to try to find creative ways to do anything we can,” Ferguson said.