19 UA employees receive furlough notices following government shutdown

The shutdown of the federal government continues to affect workers all over the country, including an increasing number of Arkansans.

The University of Arkansas on Tuesday announced that eight faculty members and 11 staffers received furlough notices this week as a result of the shutdown.

The employees are paid through either National Science Foundation or NASA grants, but the university is currently unable to draw funds for those federal grants.

Of the 19 affected employees, 10 received 90 or 100 percent of their salary from federal funds and are on full furlough. The rest will be on partial furlough, since they only receive a portion of their salaries from federal funding. Those portions range from 3 to 67 percent federal funding. Two faculty members will lose only the “extra compensation” they receive from their federal grants, in addition to their university salary, for the duration of the shutdown.

“We have 80 students whose work is funded through federal research grants,” said Jim Rankin, vice provost for research and economic development. “Their colleges and departments have been able to find alternate funding for them, and no students have been furloughed.”

Furloughed employees will receive health care benefits through October. If the furlough lasts longer, they will need to arrange for their own health care coverage, UA officials said.