Financially strapped public colleges and universities are living in the shadow of the ax this semester, enduring a renewed stream of announcements of potential or actual faculty layoffs and program closures.
The situation is not likely to improve anytime soon. Federal stimulus money, which propped up many budgets over the past two years, is drying up. And states are in no position to help. The Center on Budget and Policy Priorities, a nonpartisan research organization in Washington, estimated this month that state governments will face a total budget shortfall of $160-billion in the 2011 fiscal year—only a modest improvement from the estimated $191-billion gap for 2010.
Colleges are reacting in various ways, from far-reaching reviews of “underperforming” programs to specific cuts. Here are four dispatches from the front lines of the budget wars:
Missouri
Following word that the state faces a budget gap of up to $500-million in the 2012 fiscal year, Gov. Jay Nixon, a Democrat, ordered the Department of Higher Education to conduct a statewide review of all academic programs at public institutions.
As a result, on October 1, the provost of the University of Missouri at Columbia, Brian L. Foster, released a list of 75 “underperforming” degree programs being considered for potential realignment or elimination. The threatened programs had awarded an average of fewer than 10 undergraduate, five master’s, or three doctoral degrees in the past three years. Most programs on the list are graduate programs, such as one offering a master’s in pathology.
Department heads have until October 31 to submit additional data—ranging from faculty and research productivity to the number of courses taught by each instructor—about those programs.
Mr. Foster said that the university won’t know the outcome until next year but that a number of programs will very likely be consolidated or eliminated.
Leona Rubin, chair of Missouri’s Faculty Council on University Policy and an associate professor of veterinary medicine, said she had been assured by administrators that the review is not about wide-ranging faculty cuts.
But Michael Urban, president of the Graduate Faculty Senate and an associate professor of geography, is still worried because cuts seem to be an obvious cost-saving measure.
Louisiana
State appropriations for Louisiana State University at Baton Rouge have shrunk by $47-million since January 2009, when a midyear budget cut that university officials expect to be handed down any day now is considered. And lawmakers have made it clear that more budget cuts are on the way in the 2011-12 fiscal year.
What’s not clear are the specifics: How much of a financial hit will Louisiana State—which lost several programs this past spring—have to take this time around? How many more programs will be shuttered? How many more faculty and staff jobs will disappear?
“People are walking around saying, ‘Mine is the essential program on campus that can’t be cut,’ but they’re secretly fearing that their program will be the one,” said Kevin Cope, president of the Faculty Senate and a professor of English literature. “It’s a pretty unstable situation. And it’s having a severely demoralizing effect on the campus.”
If the most severe scenario outlined last month by the university comes to pass—a plan that shows the effects of a $62-million cut—officials say Louisiana State would have to shutter about seven of its 14 colleges, meaning enrollment would drop by an estimated 8,000 students. In turn, officials estimate that about 350 faculty members would be laid off as about 50 degree programs were shut down; about the same number of staff members would lose their jobs as well.
The other institutions in the Louisiana State University system also face budget cuts.
New York
On October 1, George M. Philip, president of the State University of New York at Albany, had some bad news. Admissions to five programs—classics, French, Italian, Russian, and theater—would be suspended, effectively killing them. Jobs would disappear universitywide, too. By 2012, some 360 positions across the university will have been eliminated, mostly through resignations and retirements, Mr. Philip said. However, he added, “involuntary terminations of employment will be unavoidable.” About a quarter of the total number of the positions lost from 2008 to 2012 will be a mix of full-time, tenure-track, and adjunct faculty jobs, according to university projections. Three-quarters will be professional and support staff.
Since 2008 the university has had to cope with “more than $33.5-million in cuts to its base state tax-dollar allocation, a more than 30-percent decline,” Mr. Philip said in a statement. The shortfall required the university “to rethink, balance, and reallocate resources to support its core academic and research mission,” he said. In a follow-up statement, Mr. Philip said Albany had decided to make the announcement now to allow for more input and to give students and faculty members “as much time as possible to consider their future in the event such plans are enacted.” That suggests the university may be open to modifying its plans.
Jean-François Brière, a professor of French studies, chairs the department of languages, literatures, and cultures, home to several of the condemned programs. The announcement led to an outcry on the campus, he told The Chronicle via e-mail, adding that the move was viewed as an attack on both liberal-arts education and tenure.
According to Mr. Brière, seven tenured positions in French, two in Russian, one in Italian, and one in Latin are threatened, along with the jobs of several full-time lecturers. He and other faculty members issued an open letter decrying the situation, and a Web petition protesting the proposal has attracted more than 12,000 signatures.
Mr. Philip has asked the University Senate to comment on the proposal. Eric Lifshin, a professor in the College of Nanoscale Science and Engineering, chairs the senate. “This is obviously a challenging time for everybody involved,” he told The Chronicle. “I’m expecting there will be a spirited discussion. I certainly have gotten a lot of e-mails from people.”
Karl Luntta, a spokesman for the university, said the president would take the senate’s comments “under advisement.” Asked whether the decision might be reversed, he said that “the consultation process about the future of the language programs is continuing.”
Illinois
The flight path of the Institute of Aviation at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign is cloudy after a systemwide review of campus budgets found that closing the small program could save as much as $750,000 annually.
In a report issued last month, a team of university professors, students, and administrators suggested closing the institute on the basis of “questions about its ‘fit’ and strength of its ties to our core missions.” No plans have been announced for wider program cuts at the university, although administrators and professors anticipate a period of systemwide cutbacks.
The aviation program, founded in 1946, offers two-year professional pilot certification as well as bachelor’s and master’s degrees in a field called aviation human factors. The institute holds classes at the campus’s Willard Airport, which is several miles from the campus. Its 172 students have been taught by a small staff of adjunct instructors after the five permanent faculty members were relocated to other departments this year. “The students are just very concerned about the stability of the program,” said Tom W. Emanuel Jr., the institute’s acting director.
He feels that the Institute of Aviation is being unfairly singled out by the university. “We’re just easy to look at because we’re so small and remote,” he said. Mr. Emanuel plans to fight the program’s closure when it is deliberated and voted on by the university senate.
Robin Kaler, a university spokesperson, said no final decision had been made. Although financial viability will be a factor in the senate’s decision, she said, program cuts will also take student and faculty interest into account.
