UTEP’s athletic department furloughs employees, cuts jobs due to pandemic budget woes

EL PASO, TEXAS – In what UTEP President Heather Wilson called "tough decisions," the university announced late Wednesday afternoon that it was furloughing employees and cutting jobs in the athletic department due to budget woes tied to the Covid-19 pandemic.

In addition, men’s basketball head coach Rodney Terry and football head coach Dana Dimel said they had agreed to accept cuts in their salaries for the coming year. Neither coach indicated the exact amount of their pay reductions.

UTEP Director of Athletics Jim Senter said in a statement that some positions in the athletic program were being eliminated and added that "all athletics employees will be taking furloughs" between now and August of next year.

Senter called the cutbacks "difficult and unfortunate but ultimately necessary during these turbulent times."

He did not provide specific numbers of jobs eliminated or details on the length of the worker furloughs. Officials also didn't place a dollar figure on the savings that would be realized by the cutbacks.

University officials did say they were trying to minimize the impact of the cuts on UTEP's student athletes.