University prepares for budget cuts

Citing economic shortcomings throughout the state of Georgia, Gov. Sonny Purdue and the Board of Regents of the University System of Georgia have recommended that all state funded universities prepare for budget cuts in the six to ten percent range.

For GCSU, that means cutting the budget between $2,202,696 and $3,671,160 for the coming fiscal year. The school expects to know the exact amount by the end of September.

“Six percent would be significant, very significant,” GCSU President Dr. Dorothy Leland said. “Ten percent would be extraordinary. By extraordinary it would be a bigger reduction than we have ever had in a given fiscal year.”

The cuts come after a drop in state tax collections, which caused a projected $1.6 billion revenue gap. According to state law, state expenditures cannot exceed state revenue.

Leland has taken measures to begin the cost cutting process.
“We’ve really had two priorities in looking about how to manage this very significant challenge,” Leland said. “One is to take actions that will cause the least amount of harm to the quality of education and the services that we provide to our students. Secondly, to protect the jobs of our employees.”

Dr. Bob Haney, interim vice president for academic affairs, said the plan has gone well so far.

“Under President Leland’s leadership we have so far managed to protect the quality of instruction and to avoid employee layoffs,” Haney said.

A number of measures have already been put into place to aid in the transition.

Printing costs have been reduced by printing brochures in two colors instead of three, moving the campus directory strictly to the web and eliminating the printing of paychecks and stubs in favor of direct deposit.

Some departments have been restructured, including merging the enrollment division with the office of academic affairs.
“The merger eliminated a vice presidential position and we also felt it would increase the ability of those units to work effectively together,” Leland said.

Other changes include limiting equipment purchases to $250, reducing the amount of water used to water plants, limiting non-essential travel and eliminating some unfilled positions.
“We’ve also done other things,” Leland said. “For example, saving fuel costs by putting more of our public safety officers on bikes.”

Ken Procter, the dean of the School of Liberal Arts and Sciences, said that most of the cuts will come from areas that have not yet been implemented on campus.

“The things that you are just about to put into place are the easiest to take away because nobody ever had them,” Procter said. “You were about to get them, but you never actually got the experience of having them.”

Even with all these changes currently being applied, Leland said the brunt of the cuts will not be felt until next year.

“Some of the improvements that we were hoping to make, we will not be able to make,” Leland said. “Luckily we have people that are really talented and vested in the university that manage to do extraordinary things even in hard times, and I am sure they will continue to do that.”

Still, until the state issues another report on revenue and makes projections for the coming fiscal year, the university will not know exactly how much will have to be cut.

“Our plans (for the budget cuts) are prioritized,” Procter said. “Things that are the least noticeable will be the first to go in our plans and those that would be the most noticeable – those that affect the hopes and dreams (of students) – would be the very last things to go.”

Students, according to Leland, do not need to worry about the cuts affecting their educational experience at GCSU.

“It is quite possible that students will not even notice any change in their classroom experience as a result of the cuts,” said Haney.

Posted by Colonnade Archives on Sep 19 2008. Filed under News. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. You can leave a response or trackback to this entry