UNO faculty frustrated, frayed amid fiscal fiasco 

by Piper Hutchinson, Louisiana Illuminator
February 5, 2025

NEW ORLEANS — The University of New Orleans Faculty Senate is fed up with the university’s budget chief and dealing with frayed internal relations amid a financial crisis at the school. 

Facing a $10 million budget shortfall, UNO administration has undertaken a series of significant cuts to try to dig the university out of its hole. But faculty are increasingly frustrated with the lack of communication about the cuts and are directing their ire at Chief Financial Officer Edwin Litolff. 

“Should we be ceding power to a non-academic, non-intellectual CFO,” Gregory Price, a faculty senator and economics professor, asked with a raised voice at a Faculty Senate meeting Tuesday. “Has our president ceded power and responsibility to our hack CFO?” 

Litolff, who previously served in a similar role at Grambling State University, was hired by President Kathy Johnson last fall and tasked with cutting the university’s way out of its budget crunch. Litolff sees his job as trying to keep the lights on and the employees paid as the university “rightsizes” its budget. 

UNO’s budget problems aren’t anything new. Johnson’s predecessor, John Nicklow, struggled with the budget during his tenure from 2016-23. 

The contemporary fiscal problems truly began after Hurricane Katrina in 2005, when the university’s enrollment dropped from around 17,000 to around 6,000 and never recovered. For the fall 2024 semester, UNO’s total student body was 6,488. 

Complicating matters were significant cuts to the entire state higher education system during Gov. Bobby Jindal’s two terms in office, from 2008-16. Those reductions switched the burden of funding colleges and universities from the state to the students, leading to significant tuition hikes across Louisiana. 

UNO was slow to adjust its expenses to match its shrinking student body, a task that has forced Johnson to make drastic moves, including consolidating administrators, furloughing most employees and laying off staff. 

While faculty cannot be furloughed, even tenured professors can be terminated in the face of a budget crisis.

CFO complaints 

Frustrations with Litolff seemed to be shared by many faculty and staff. The usually empty library meeting room where the senate’s 27 members meet monthly was packed Tuesday with UNO employees desperate to hear updates about the university’s crisis — employees who cheered openly when senators were critical of Litolff. 

Litolff has not yet responded to a request for comment for this report. 

“I continue to have very low confidence in the administration, and … I’m particularly offended by Edwin’s behavior and his statement about Disneyland,” Max Krochmal, a history professor and senate parliamentarian said at the meeting. 

Litolff’s comments about Disney came at a January University of Louisiana System Board of Supervisors meeting in which the board gave approval to the school’s plan to furlough staff. 

“We will furlough whatever we need to make it to the end of the year,” Litolff said at the board meeting. “And if some people are taking off the whole month of June, plan your Disney vacation, go on your cruise, because that’s where we may end up being.” 

Litolff also rubbed faculty the wrong way with a proposal for voluntary furloughing of faculty. After some professors expressed an interest in donating money or time to staff most impacted by the furloughs, Faculty Senate leaders were greeted with a plan to save the university $1 million if the entire faculty agreed to be furloughed. 

“When we walked in that room, he started talking about [the faculty furlough proposal], he had dollar signs in his eyes,” Faculty Senate President Connie Phelps said. 

Faculty senators agreed to “disabuse” Litolff of the notion they would be furloughed en masse to solve the cash flow issue and will opt instead to set up an emergency fund for furloughed staff. 

Multiple senators agreed the fund should be managed by faculty rather than by Litolff. 

“I don’t want Edwin to touch a penny of my money,” Krochmal said. 

While most faculty complaints were centered on Litolff, Johnson was also the subject of concern, with Phelps and other senators arguing she has a limited view on the role of shared governance with faculty. The shared governance model delegates certain powers, primarily those dealing with academics, to faculty. Most universities divulge little authority to faculty senates. 

Frayed relations 

When one faculty senator suggested censuring Litolff, Phelps suggested doing so would be inadvisable. 

Senators’ differing approaches to dealing with Litolff and the administration were another point of contention in the meeting, which at times descended into yelling. 

Phelps easily defeated a vote of no confidence brought by fellow senator Roberto Barrios, an anthropology professor who charged Phelps and other members of the executive committee were withholding information and not sharing credit with him. Barrios stalked out of the meeting silently after the failed vote, which was conducted by secret ballot, having promised earlier in the meeting to resign from the senate if Phelps remained in office. 

While other senators seemed embarrassed by Barrios’ move — several averted their eyes or put their head in their hands while he spoke against Phelps — there seemed to be a broad agreement that the senate was not acting to advance the faculty’s interest as the university slashed its way out of a hole. 

“I do feel like our body is falling short, collectively,” Krochmal, the parliamentarian, said at the meeting. “I think we’re failing to communicate with the rank-and-file faculty about what we’re doing clearly, we’re failing to share basic information about what’s happening … at these upper level meetings that you all attend, and people are crying out for more information and for more action.” 

While Phelps repeatedly called for moderation, other senators voiced calls for action that bordered on insurrection. 

“Rebellion is always a choice, right?” Price said. “Death before dishonor.” 

The student government representative on the senate, Joshua Trochez, said “rebellion might be needed” to push back against the UL System, which he believes is calling the shots in the university’s budget crisis. 

Though a full rebellion and “storming” of the board does not seem to have broad appeal among the faculty, senators expressed a desire to have more of a presence at board meetings to provide a fuller picture of the university’s crisis than they believe Litolff and Johnson are providing. 

Louisiana Illuminator is part of States Newsroom, a nonprofit news network supported by grants and a coalition of donors as a 501c(3) public charity. Louisiana Illuminator maintains editorial independence. Contact Editor Greg LaRose for questions: info@lailluminator.com.