Layoffs and closures loom at UNC - Katelyn Ferral, Chapel Hill News

State budget cuts will force more layoffs and could force closing some buildings on the UNC-Chapel Hill campus, Chancellor Holden Thorp said Wednesday. Thorp did not predict job-loss numbers for the new fiscal year. Last year, 115 employees were laid off: 91 non-faculty employees and 24 faculty members and administrators. The university focused on cutting nonacademic areas as much as possible first, which has left support departments thin. More layoffs could result in campus buildings closing, Vice Chancellor Richard Mann told the board of trustees in a meeting at the Carolina Inn. "We are facing a significant gap in operations," he said. "We have a number of buildings we're concerned about. ...We might not be able to keep them open." Less state money will affect the academic structure of the university and prolong the freeze on employee salaries and make it more difficult to attract and retain prestigious professors and faculty, Provost Bruce Carney said.