IN PRINT: Town hall meeting reveals fewer layoffs than expected and discontent of facilities staff

Princeton University has cut in half the number of layoffs it had previously expected to make, according to Lianne Sullivan-Crowley, vice president for human resources, who spoke at a campus town hall meeting Tuesday. She credited the university’s budget and cost-savings initiatives.Ms. Sullivan-Crowley reported that a voluntary retirement program had succeeded in cutting 145 employees. The program allows employees whose job hours are reduced by 20 percent or more to voluntarily leave their position in exchange for a severance package. These employees will leave between Oct. 15, 2009 and June 30, 2010.As a consequence, Ms. Sullivan Crowley said, earlier estimates of 150 to 200 layoffs have been halved. One facilities employee said he was dissatisfied with Princeton’s move to cut some double-time hours — such as on snow days when facilities personnel are called in early — to time-and-a-half pay.”While you’re nice and warm, some of us have to come here at 5 a.m. and clear the roads for you,” he told Executive Vice President Mark Burstein.Read the entire article at the Princeton Packet here.