At a closed meeting with employees today, the leadership at the University of Arkansas for Medical
 Sciences sought to explain why the institution had to fire 258 people and end 600 positions. Some answers already have been provided in stories in the Times, including this one. UAMS called the meeting, leadership said earlier, because of the “rumors” swirling about future terminations.

The Times is told that Interim Chancellor Stephanie Gardner used slides to explain that reserves at UAMS had been depleted by nearly 70 percent since 2011. She said increasing the Medical School’s tuition would have little positive effect on the budget, though in an answer to a question after her presentation, she said the UA Board of Trustees advocates for raising tuition. UAMS has begged for more state funding, and Gardner said she had met with legislators this week and that they had lots of questions for her.

Gardner said there were no plans for additional layoffs, but there was potential for more. She said the layoffs represented 5.6 percent of the workforce, the Times is told.

Advertisement

One person in the audience noted that UAMS employees at Arkansas Children’s Hospital — where UAMS terminated its biostatistician team, among others — were being funded by grants from the Centers of Biomedical Research Excellence of the National Institutes of Health, dollars that follow the grantees. Gardner replied that it’s possible the grants didn’t fully fund salaries of researchers. She did not address a question that has been raised elsewhere: Didn’t firing grantees cost UAMS dollars directed by the grants to the institution?

Also in response to a question, Gardner said some highly paid administrators were among those fired. She did not identify them. The Times has asked for a list of the 258 occupied positions but has not received it.

Advertisement

Gardner also described Jan. 8, when employees received notice and were escorted off campuses — some by police, as the most difficult day she’d experienced at UAMS. Difficult for 258 others, too.