No more rounding up: Cornell trims payroll costs

In response to what President David Skorton has termed a "persistent negative financial outlook sweeping the entire higher education sector," [read: loss of 27% of endowment] Cornell has been trying to cut costs across the board.

One area of cuts seems to be with the payroll system. Hourly employees (both students and full-timers) enter their "time cards" electronically through the Colts system. Until this week, the system was surprisingly generous about rounding up. If someone worked 3hrs, 1min one day, it would round up to 3.1 hours. Doesn't sound like much, but it might result in a little extra on each paycheck.

Not anymore. Colts now has a second decimal place, meaning that two days like the example above would only add up to 3.02 x 2 = 6.04hrs, not 6.2.

The new accounting policy is fairer, and saves the university money, so the change is perfectly understandable. It's just one more example of belt tightening on East Hill.