Email sent to leadership for sharing on March 13, 2025.

Dear Colleagues,

We know these are difficult times given so much uncertainty around funding. As outlined in a recent budget letter from the Chancellor and Provost, UC Davis anticipates a $37 million State funding reduction in fiscal year 2025-26. Coupled with rising costs, this will more than double our structural core funds deficit — from a projected $40.3 million at the close of fiscal year 2024-25 to approximately $90 million by the end of 2025-26. Changes to Federal policies are also expected to result in funding cuts across higher education, including at UC Davis.

As a result, many of you are exploring difficult options that may affect both services and staffing in your areas. While we don’t have all the answers yet, we are committed to navigating these challenges together as a campus community, guided by compassion and transparency. To that end, we provide the below information and support to help you in the months ahead.

What You Should Know

• We have created new resources to help you support your staff while navigating uncertainty, including the Leading through Change and Disruption Toolkit.
• We ask every leader to continue scrutinizing all staff position vacancies and determine whether they must be filled immediately or can be deferred or canceled. As we all know, not filling a position is one of the most immediate ways we can manage our budget challenges. Additionally, please seriously explore reductions of consultants, contract employees, retiree rehires, and temporary employees.
• To ensure that every staff recruitment decision aligns with our financial realities, we ask every Dean, Vice Chancellor, Vice Provost, and other senior leaders to establish a staff hiring review process. Many of these reviews are already in place and working well.
• An additional staff hiring review will be required for select administrative units with known financial challenges when positions are forwarded for recruitment. A representative group of experts will review these staff recruitment requests, ensuring we make the best possible choices for long-term stability. Administrative units required to go through this additional review will be notified and provided more information about the central review process. Among the administrative units that will go through the additional hiring review process will be the Office of Chancellor and Provost.
• A few federal grants have been abruptly halted. For these unfortunate cases, Employee and Labor Relations (ELR) should be contacted immediately to explore options.  
• We’re committed to using layoffs only when necessary and after carefully assessing other options. ELR, Talent Acquisition and Compensation teams are here to help. We have recently updated our online resources for staff, and encourage you to read HR’s Web Resources on Layoffs, including How to Communicate a Layoff or Workforce Change. Please reach out to the ELR Team for additional information and guidance on how to best manage your specific situation, and please include your HR Business Partner in any conversations with ELR.
• We are also developing a program to help reassign displaced staff into vacant positions where their skills are appropriately matched. We expect this program to be available in the coming weeks.
• Further, there are requirements for recall and preferential rehire for certain staff positions that we will carefully uphold.
• Some ideas have been evaluated, but excluded, due to high upfront costs and/or lack of long-term effectiveness. Excluded are early retirement buyouts, a voluntary separation program, temporary furloughs, and temporary reductions in time. If you receive inquiries about these options, please share that these are not under current consideration.

Lead with Compassion and Transparency

At UC Davis, the wellbeing of our faculty, staff and students is always a priority.  We are counting on each of you to support your teams with empathy and care. This means:

• Modeling and encouraging kindness in the workplace.
• Being patient: Many are carrying immense personal and professional burdens.
• Respecting privacy: Not everyone will want to share how they’re feeling.
• Encouraging the use of mental health resources, including our Coping with Grief, Loss, and Change support group (sessions available throughout March).
• Taking a team approach. When possible, help employees share tasks and responsibilities during difficult times.

Clarity is a true kindness during times of uncertainty. Sharing information as you receive it – including this message – can help your staff feel prioritized and cared for. Please feel free to forward this message. Honesty and transparency from leaders are what our staff deserve as we move through these challenges together.

If you need guidance, our ELR team is here to strategize with you, and our ASAP (Academic and Staff Assistance Program) team is available for employee support, including you.  

These challenges are not yours to face alone — we are all in this together.

Sincerely,

Clare Shinnerl
Vice Chancellor for Finance, Operations and Administration

Tammy Kenber
Chief Human Resources Officer