UCSB’s Chancellor Staff Advisory will inform university employees about the potential consequences of the UC system’s financial issues at its first Staff Budget Forum today at 12 p.m. in the Student Resource Building Multipurpose Room.

The meeting will begin with a presentation by Executive Vice Chancellor Gene Lucas on behalf of the of the Chancellor’s Coordinating Committee on Budget Strategy, discussing state budget cuts and presenting information on how various departments will be affected during the next fiscal year, followed by a Q&A session. In light of the substantial cuts, which reportedly amount to around $50 million, the participants believe a more open line of communication between university staff and administration will be essential.

In anticipation of the forum, AR/AP Coordinator and I.V. Office Coordinator Jose Raygoza, a CSAC member, said budget reductions will likely result in administrative changes to decrease costs.

“I think that there will probably be more consolidation between departments … just like South Hall has done,” Raygoza said. “There, you have one administration office in charge of three or four departments, so you have the same amount of staff managing three to four departments as you had managing each one in the past.”

Portola Dining Commons Personnel Manager Tim Sullivan, also a CSAC member, said campus staff members’ anxieties over the expected decrease in funding have aligned along similar themes.

“The most common staff concerns I have heard are worries about potential lay-offs or staff cutbacks, including paying more into retirement or increased workload for the same pay,” Sullivan said. “The second most common [concern] is probably talk about the cutbacks in programs and services and how each department is going to be affected by that.”

Despite efforts on the part of the administration to maintain the status quo for employees in terms of pay and benefits, Raygoza said it seems some staff members will suffer reductions in these due to budget problems.

“In the administration, we are really trying to make layoffs a last resort,” Raygoza said. “Still, we won’t know until the layoffs and other fiscal information starts coming in.”