In an effort to realize nearly $300,000 in budget cuts last spring, administrators considered outsourcing some campus services, including janitorial services and groundskeeping.

While outsourcing would have meant a significant change gain in the budget, Kyle Owen, assistant vice president of facilities services, said he was willing to do anything to prevent outsourcing.

Eliminating nine positions, he said, was a better alternative for the university, noting that all of the positions were unfilled meaning that no people lost their jobs.

Of the people in the positions considered for outsourcing, almost half of those have been with the university for 10 or more years, Owen said, noting that people working for the university tend to stay in their jobs much longer than when they work for a private company. 

Owen said the future of positions opening depends upon higher enrollment numbers but for now the university is to capacity even though custodians now work different hours and service more space.

Evidalia Tezaguic, who will celebrate her ninth year as a custodian in October, said while she is happy about maintaining her state benefits, she hopes more positions will come open since her workload has doubled now that Dillard has one fewer custodian servicing the building.