More on the Economic Front: Greensboro College Pay Cuts; Dell Layoffs; Stimulus Money Confusion

Late last month, we posted on the tough times private colleges were having during the downturn.  News 14 reported Friday that Greensboro College laid off eight staff and temporarily cut pay for salaried staff by 20%, effective May 1st.   In addition, benefits such as sabbaticals and dental insurance were suspended or reduced.  Hourly employees were spared.  The college’s President, Dr. Craven Williams, explained the cuts were necessary owing to steep declines in endowment earnings, gifts, and enrollment for next year.

Also, a couple of weeks ago, Dell’s Forsyth plant — which has benefited from many millions in incentives at taxpayer expense — announced another round of layoffs.  Though the company has been mum on the total number jobs lost so far, a displaced Dell worker brushing up her resume here in the library last week told me it’s about 200.  If you’ve recently been laid off and you’re looking for help, you can follow this link to a previous post on Greensboro Public Library’s many job search resources.

Finally, today’s News and Record is reporting that local officials are having a tough time getting their share of all that much-heralded stimulus money.  The City of Greensboro has recently reported one success — $600,000 for work on the Bicentennial Greenway between here and High Point — but smaller towns like Reidsville are said “to have fallen off the radar.”  Here’s our latest post on Stimulus Package links, courtesy of our government docs librarian, Mr. Frank Barefoot.

UPDATE on Greensboro College:  According to the News and Record, Greensboro College students grilled President Williams today (4/23/09) over the college’s draconian cuts in a meeting at Finch Chapel.  Many are angry about the President’s salary, which the N&R indicated in 2007 was in excess of $400,000; salary figures on a blog called Gate City indicate that’s better than $150,000 more than the presidents of Guilford College and High Point University make.  And, according to one of my colleagues whose wife is on Guilford College’s budget committee, Williams’ total compensation package is actually closer to $500,000; the total package for Guilford College’s President, Kent Chabotar, is around $300,000.