Town budgets are not the only ones in trouble. The legislature is considering several bills of major importance to the University of Massachusetts, and it's important for people and organizations in this area to lend their support. Despite huge budget cuts and staff reductions during the past few years, UMass Amherst remains the region's largest employer; many towns, not just Amherst, have significant numbers of residents who are UMass employees or former employees. In fact, a surprising number of those employees live fairly far away.
Where do UMass workers live? I got answers from Rob Hendry, the Manager of the University's Transportation Demand Management Program. The Program reduces the number of cars coming to campus by encouraging the use of public transportation and car pooling. It has kept records of home addresses by zip code for about five years. According to those records, in 1999, 2,133 UMass employees lived in Amherst or Pelham (same zip code). Of nearby towns, 507 lived in Northampton and Florence; 330 in Belchertown; 297 in Hadley; 264 in Sunderland; 262 in Deerfield; 165 in Montague; 125 in Leverett; and 101 in Shutesbury. There were also ninety-four in South Hadley, forty-seven in Granby, thirty-nine in Orange, and thirty-three in Wendell. Conscious of taking up Mr. Hendry's time, I didn't ask about every city and town, so I know I've missed a lot of places and people in this little survey. Since I know people who drive from Vermont, I asked about that, and learned that there were thirty commuters from Connecticut, nineteen from Vermont, and ten from New Hampshire.
A little over a year after that data was collected, the University began a series of drastic budget cuts. As a result of retirements and layoffs, the size of the faculty and staff shrank by about 14%. Of course these reductions were not evenly spread geographically. As of fall, 2003, there were still 1,692 UMass employees living in Amherst or Pelham, a reduction of about 21%. The percentage decline in Leverett was similar (22%, down to ninety-eight people). Those towns which lost the most were Deerfield (over 35%, down to 169 UMass employees) and Wendell (33%, down to twenty-two UMass). The loses in many other towns were less: Northampton/Florence still had 433 workers, a 15% reduction; Hadley had a 10% decline to 266, Sunderland lost 25 for 9%. Some places, such as Shutesbury and Vermont, held steady; Belchertown gained four. Some others gained a lot, particularly when you remember that overall University employment figures were going down during this time. Montague rose by eleven people (almost 7%); South Hadley added nine people (about 9%); Granby is up 7 employees for a 15% increase. Connecticut and New Hampshire each have more commuters to UMass, forty-three people and fourteen respectively. Given the small numbers, their percentage increases look huge: 43% and 40%, but aren't representative.
Since then, a few hundred more employees took another early retirement offer. Since people had to be over fifty years old and long-term employees to be eligible, my guess is that the highest percentage of retirees lived in the core areas, including Amherst/Pelham, Leverett and Northampton.
Unfortunately, we don't know what's happening to the residents of our towns. What became of the people in our region who no longer work for UMass? How many were laid off? How many retired? How many of each still live here, and what are their prospects, plans, and aspirations? My guess is that in Amherst/Pelham and Leverett, most retirees were relatively well paid faculty, librarians or professional staff, whereas in Deerfield there was a higher percentage of clerical, physical plant and food service workers. But those are only my guesses; as far as I know, no one is collecting the information.
In any case, it would certainly be useful to be able to add up the numbers of employees and retirees in the region to know the total number of people who depend on the UMass budget for their salaries and pensions. This week saw major lobbying efforts by employees for an adequate budget for UMass for next year and an appropriation to pay the retroactive pay raises due to employees of higher education. Those retroactive payments are due to current employees and to people who retired or were laid off during the past three years. We would very much appreciate residents of all these towns talking to their legislators this spring.