By Gregory Childress

gchildress@heraldsun.com; 918-1046

CHAPEL HILL -- As many as 900 jobs, most of them senior and middle management positions, could soon be cut from the 16 campuses that make up the UNC system.

That was the word coming from UNC President Erskine Bowles on Monday after a regular monthly meeting with the university chancellors, some of whom trekked to Chapel Hill to receive their marching orders and others who got them over the phone via a conference call.

Bowles emerged from the nearly three-hour, closed-door session to remind media waiting in the lobby of the General Administration building that cutting costs and running more efficient campuses have been part of ongoing discussions he's had with chancellors ever since he took the helm of the UNC system four years ago.

In some areas, Bowles said, the system has succeeded in cutting costs and improving efficiency. But he said the system has failed in other areas, including thinning out the system's bloated administrative hierarchy.

Bowles referenced published reports showing that the administrative ranks on campuses have increased by 28 percent over a period when student enrollment has grown only by 14 percent.

"It's the responsibility of every campus, and the buck stops here, this is my fault, it is my job, to make sure that we operate these campuses as efficiently and effectively as they possibly can be, that we reduce our administrative overhead and that we reallocate those funds into the academic core of the university to make sure that we provide our students with the knowledge and the skills they need," Bowles said.

Because of the continuing state budget crisis -- the UNC system took a $170 million budget hit from the state this year -- forcing chancellors to reduce budgets by 10 percent, Bowles said the time for simply talking about reducing administrative costs has passed.

"We talked about the how, not the if," Bowles said in characterizing the discussion in the Monday meeting.

Bowles' comments Monday come a little more than two weeks after a letter he sent to chancellors in which he strongly reminded them about discussions in past meetings to "pare administrative cost."

"We have made it crystal clear that any further delay in reducing senior and middle management positions would jeopardize our credibility and standing with the General Assembly and the taxpayers of North Carolina," Bowles wrote.

When chancellors present their 10 percent budget reduction plans, Bowles wrote, the General Administration will be looking for "absolute PROOF that you have focused FIRST on administrative reductions and solid evidence that you have taken steps to shore up our academic core."

Plans that don't focus on reducing administrative costs to the fullest extent would not be approved, Bowles said.

"Our campuses have been planning for cuts of 10 percent since the early spring," Joni Worthington, vice president for communications with the UNC General Administration, wrote in an e-mail late Monday afternoon.

"Even before the state budget was passed, some campuses began moving forward with targeted cuts in programs/positions/centers, etc., knowing that cuts were inevitable," she wrote. "Some of those positions eliminated in recent months may be included among the 900 positions referenced today."

Meanwhile, N.C. Central University Chancellor Charlie Nelms said he and his leadership team have been working on a plan to reduce administrative costs for more than a year.

"We're about there," Nelms said. "We'll be finalizing our plan over the next few days."

He said NCCU must also look at its processes to determine how it can operate more efficiently.