Forty Acres Insider: Sept. 1

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Longhorn Nation,

As I share this week's Forty Acres Insider, we are in the midst of a very difficult day. Our country is going through extremely challenging times, and the health crisis has disrupted the lives of so many. Here in Texas Athletics, we've not been immune to that, and we have been managing the situation, adapting and adjusting to the ever-changing times. For the past five months, we've been looking closely at financial and personnel situations, made numerous cost-cutting measures and have been planning ways to put us in position for success moving forward. After a great deal of discussion, thought and holding off as long as we could, with the closing of our fiscal year on Monday, we unfortunately had to make some very difficult decisions when it came to dedicated staff.

The moves that are outlined below were very hard to come to. We had many painful and heartbreaking conversations, but the decisions that were made were necessary to ensure our financial stability going forward. They were made in large part because, financially, our goal is and always will be to provide first-class opportunities, resources and support for our student-athletes as they develop and train for excellence in their sports, the classroom and life. Student-athlete development initiatives like our recently launched 4EVER TEXAS and LEVERAGE programs are great examples of how we are keenly focused on the holistic approach we take to supporting our student-athletes. Our university mantra is, "What starts here, changes the world," and we will continue to provide everything necessary to help our student-athletes do that.

I would be remiss if I didn't take a moment to thank all of you, as well. Because of the power of our Longhorn Family and all of your support, we will get through this together. We can't thank you enough for your patience, understanding and sticking with us through thick and thin. You are the wind beneath our wings, and we will need our unified Texas Fight as we forge ahead.

Here's a look at some of the actions we have taken to ensure our financial stability:

• When the COVID-19 pandemic caused the cancellation of our post-season basketball tournaments, as well as the remainder of the 2020 winter and spring sport seasons, Texas Athletics immediately put in place cost containment measures that mitigated the financial impact of COVID-19 related cancellations for the rest of the 2019-20 fiscal year. Those actions amounted to savings in excess of $19.9 million when compared to budgeted operating expenditures for the 2019-20 fiscal year.

• In preparing for the fiscal year 2020-21 and beyond, Texas Athletics' top priorities are focused on protecting the health and welfare of our student-athletes and maintaining the services and coaching that directly support their academic and athletics pursuits. Strong measures have been taken to mitigate expected revenue losses — such as reducing team and department operating expenses, regionalizing team travel, reducing capital project expenditures, fully integrating the Erwin Center operations within the department and deferring a principal debt payment that totaled savings in excess of $21.3 million.

• However, significant full-time personnel actions were still required to stabilize the financial health of the department. The actions taken on Tuesday are heartbreaking, but necessary to put Texas Athletics in a position for success moving forward. The full-time personnel action includes the following: beginning September 1, 2020 through August 31, 2021, 26 contracted coaches and administrators voluntarily agreed to take temporary salary reductions. Beginning October 16, 2020 through August 31, 2021, 273 staff members will receive temporary salary reductions, and 11 staff members will be temporarily furloughed with benefits. Temporary salary reductions are based on a marginal rate approach in the following manner: the first $50,000 of an employee's salary will be reduced by 2.5%, the next $50,001 to $100,000 is reduced by 10% and any amount above $100,001 is reduced by 15%. Also, beginning September 1, 2020, 35 staff members will be laid off and 35 vacant positions will be permanently eliminated. Texas Athletics is also suspending the performance incentive program at this time. These actions amount to a $13.1 million savings for the department budget.

• Although this is an extremely difficult time for our department, we fully expect to bounce back from this experience stronger and positioned well to continue to provide the best student-athlete experience in the country and strive to compete for Big 12 and National Championships in all of our 20 sports programs.

These are unprecedented times we are in and all of us in college athletics are facing unexpected circumstances, a lot of change and very difficult decisions. None of it has been easy, and we recognize the impact it's had on so many and are deeply sorry for that. But we also know it's our responsibility to position Texas Athletics to remain solvent, steady and able to perform at the highest level. Those are our expectations, and we know they are yours, too. So, we must stay positive and unite as one as we take on the days, weeks and months to come with vigor, enthusiasm and resiliency.

Stay safe, be healthy and Hook 'em Horns,

Chris del Conte signature

The University of Texas at Austin Athletics