news
page 3 monday 7.26.2010
thebattalion
EDITORIAL
Budget cuts loom
Making the best of a bad situation
Worst case: 10 percent reduction Sarah Ammerman, Rebecca Bennett and Vicky Flores The Battalion The economic downturn is affecting universities across the nation, and Texas A&M is also being forced to plan for the worst. With University President R. Bowen Loftin’s statement July 20, 2010 that the University is preparing for a $60 million budget reallocation affecting approximately 485 jobs, the overall feeling around campus is an uneasy one. University’s plan For the biennial budget of 20122013, the Texas Legislature has asked institutions of higher learning to prepare a preliminary plan of the budget if a 10 percent budget cut passes in the legislature. “The state has asked for 5 percent increments to come up with what we need to do. We have a 5 percent plan, and we have a 10 percent plan,” said Konrad Johnson, student body vice president and senior finance major. Texas A&M has asked each department and auxiliary to submit preliminary plans of how each department would cut 10 percent of spending. The 10 percent budget cut is not a choice coming from the University but from the legislature and will affect all public institutions of higher learning.
“All types of businesses, people and industries have to change or modify the way their daily business is run due to the state of the economy,” said state Rep. Fred Brown. “It is not an easy task but one that is necessary to continue.” State money is allocated toward specific areas of the University. “Eighty-nine percent goes to paying people directly on our faculty and our staff, 6 percent funds scholarships and 5 percent funds operations, mostly utilities,” Loftin said. Loftin said that because so much of state funding goes to faculty, the University could not avoid such a large cut in that area. Faculty and staff cuts that have been planned include 275 vacant positions and 210 filled positions. “The basis of [the] cuts will mostly be unfilled positions, and hopefully the University will be able to get by without having people lose their jobs,” Brown said. Colleges across the campus are preparing plans to handle the cuts, and most hits will be taken in the nontenured faculty and graduate teaching assistant areas, said Joseph Newton, dean of the College of Science. “What we have been doing is getting each college and each division, going through and planning what they would do to cut their budget by 10 percent,” said Jacob Robinson ,student body president and senior leadership studies major. If a 10 percent budget cut is
passed, $39 million will be asked back from the state, and $21 million will be gathered by the University to reallocate to departments that will be cut the most, totaling $60 million in planned budget cuts. “Here is the problem. If you look at your university, you have your services and you have your academics. Now academics comprise, say 80 percent of what a university is, and state money goes primarily to academics. So if you pull $39 million out of academics, then you have a sudden drop in academics,” Johnson said. “Your other services that run on their own still have their $21 million. We are trying to figure out a way to balance the scales so that we can remain strong as a whole.” Administration and student government officials said these plans are only preliminary and will not take effect until fiscal year 2012. “Right now all this is saying is this is what Texas A&M would do if we were asked to cut the budget by X amount. So that’s all this is,” Robinson said. Although some departments have already been told which staff members will be let go. The department of continuing education will have to cut five staff members, two of which are retiring, by Aug. 31, 2010. “I think we owe people the ability to tell them as soon as we know,” Loftin said. “We should be able to
A
s the budget cuts for the fiscal tion while planning for the future. These cuts are inevitable, and the year of 2012 become a real$39 million in state funds the uniity, Texas A&M is appropriately preparing for the worst. Although versity could lose has to come from the Texas Legislature told univer- somewhere. The plan in place to address sities to prepare for budget cuts in this situation has come from both five percent increments, statefaculty and student input, and is ments from administration and the best way to keep stulegislature indicated the state will dents from feeling cut funding by 10 percent. the effects of the The cuts may have a With a state cuts as much as larger effect on faculty, mandated 10% possible. Cutbecause 89 percent budget cut, Texas ting faculty of state funds supA&M is doing its positions and port their salaries. best to prevent different Although cutting these costs from departments faculty while keeping being passed down on campus a large freshmen class to students will keep the may not seem like the University from best option, it is the lesser of passing these costs onto two evils to allow students from students through tuition increases. the state of Texas to attain the Loftin has chosen the best option best education possible with given in this balancing act by keeping Educational and General funds. education and students in the foreUniversity President R. Bowen front instead of cutting admissions, Loftin and his administration are raising tuition, and treating the making the best of a terrible situa- University as simply a business.
EDITORIALBOARD The Battalion’s editorial opinion is determined by its Board of Opinion, with the editor in chief having final responsibility. Editor in Chief Vicky Flores editor@thebatt.com
See Budget on page 4
Opinion Editor Ian McPhail opinion@thebatt.com
Managing Editor Megan Ryan battcopy@thebatt.com
FY2012 reduction proposals from the colleges Each college and division at Texas A&M University submitted possible ways to reduce budgets by Sept. 1, 2011, in the worst-case scenario. To view the report, go to http://finance.tamu.edu/budget/ FY2012-Reduction-University-%20Template.pdf. Below is what the colleges reported for eliminations, reallocation or savings: College of Agriculture and Life Sciences $3.125 million Vacant faculty positions Vacant staff positions Eliminate filled faculty positions
4.6
$300,328
2.81
$109,103
14.72
$1,319,028
Courses and other essential functions from these eliminated positions will be: 1) shifted to remaining faculty or 2) will be taught by contract faculty on nonappropriated funds at a lower rate or 3) restructured to be more cost-effective. Eliminate filled staff positions
5.58
$250,028
Vacant staff positions
1
$28,000
Eliminate filled faculty positions
8
$155,727
Elimination of these part-time positions means the elimination of 31 sections, resulting in larger-enrollment courses. In addition, summer courses taught by these faculty means a 50% reduction in the courses available to students in this department. These eliminations are from one department. Eliminate filled staff positions
1
$28,376
Operating expenses
$541,778
Operating expenses
$222,339
Reduction in scholarships and fellowships will impact recruitment and retention of highly sought-after graduate students.
Other savings
$924,174
Travel expenses
College of Architecture $1.375 million Vacant faculty positions
8
$515,128
Vacant staff positions
2
$70,000
Eliminate filled staff positions
7
$215,351
Operating expenses
$83,982
$36,800
This reduction will create less opportunity for faculty and graduate students to present at national conferences reducing visibility for the college. Will also have an impact on our ability to recruit top graduate students. Other savings
$596,862
Reduction of funding for equipment renewal will impact reliability of equipment and potential decrease in productivity. Summer courses will not be taught unless they are part of a faculty member’s regular load. Students will not have as many options during the summer. Graduate assistantships will be eliminated.
The college will be reducing student workers hired in the dean’s office, student services (advising office) and the business office. The college will be eliminating graduate assistant support to journals and centers. The departments and the college will be reducing operating and supplies budgets.
Vacant faculty positions
Travel expenses
Vacant staff positions
$37,376
Other savings
$453,163
VIZA, ARCH, & LAUP will reduce the payments paid to associate department heads and program coordinators. VIZA and LAUP will change summer teaching funding to a set amount regardless of a faculty member’s pay. LAUP will have faculty members fund 3.5% of their nine-month salary on research grants. Faculty members in each department will have increased workloads and teach larger sections. Mays Business School $3.425 million Vacant faculty positions
Eliminate filled staff positions
$61,201
1
$53,190
22.75
$1,110,873
The contracts for 22.75 full and part-time nontenure track faculty positions will not be renewed on Sept. 1, 2011. This combined with the elimination of a vacant faculty position and the reduction of appointments of other faculty will result in a total loss of 26.5 faculty. The corresponding impact would be the loss of approximately 200 course sections. Eliminate filled staff positions
3
$101,704
Due to the fact that Mays Business School is already leanly staffed, this loss will have significant impact on the quality of services provided to students and faculty. Operating expenses
$308,042
Operating budgets will experience further reductions in student wages. Combined with the previous 5% cut, the reduction will significantly impact the ability to support faculty research, scholarship and teaching needs. Travel expenses
$180,476
We will no longer be able to support student travel to case competitions and other professional development opportunities. Other savings
$1,609,514
This significant reduction in graduate assistantships will severely impair the ability to recruit high quality master’s and doctorate students. This budget reduction leaves Mays with no choice but to significantly reduce the summer teaching program. This program is critical to ensuring that students graduate on schedule.
Operating expenses
1 maintenance
Travel expenses Other savings
$514,370
College of Geosciences $1.325 million 3
$238,755
Vacant staff positions
2
$58,782
Eliminate filled faculty positions
5
$523,422
This reduction in faculty support will increase teaching workloads of current faculty that are already stretched thin due to additional teaching load, conducting research, and participating in service activities. Eliminate filled staff positions
10
$335,454
In order for the college to meet its budget reduction target, it will no longer provide salary support to one of its research centers. In addition, the college will be forced to eliminate staff positions. The Texas Sea Grant, special line item in the budget, anticipates two staff members will retire to meet its portion of the budget reduction. The impact of eliminating staff positions throughout the college will increase the workload of the remaining faculty and staff resulting in low morale throughout the college due to the increase in workload. Operating expenses
maintenance
$25,000
Other savings
$139,000
$314,756
The series of past unrestored cuts and the large increase in faculty and students have made it so departments are reduced to severe cuts. Just a few examples include physics eliminating copiers, some departments eliminating many student workers, and some departments eliminating colloquia series. Travel expenses
$36,844
Other savings
$2,658,974
As in cuts of faculty, this very large (approximately 20%) but unavoidable cut in teaching assistants will have a severe impact on teaching and research missions, and in terms of rankings and retention of the best faculty the work of decades in building strong graduate programs will be severely damaged. This is also completely counter to the strategic plan, which has building the graduate program as its top priority. Unfortunately, the college has no other place to cut any further. The loss of teaching assistants will be detrimental to the undergraduates we teach. Under these cuts there will be no funds to run the normal summer teaching program.
College of Veterinary Medicine & Biomedical Sciences $3.8 million
College of Liberal Arts $4.7 million Vacant faculty positions
10.5
$1,012,740
.5
$20,000
16.25
$1,369,516
1
$30,000
Operating expenses Other savings
maintenance
$102,500 $2,165,244
All faculty affected by the retrieval of summer salary will be contacted individually and given the opportunity of a meeting with the dean and department head. The college is confident that a good portion of the graduate assistantship funding can be replaced from temporary sources. Elimination of base funding for summer teaching takes place in the context of a strategic review of teaching outside the normal semester. College of Science $4.96 million Vacant faculty positions Vacant staff positions Eliminate filled faculty positions
11
$795,882
2
$64,144
21
$950,400
9
$966,588
The downsizing of various programs and activities within the College of Veterinary Medicine & Biomedical Sciences and elimination/suspension of a select few will lead to increased duties in virtually all areas of the college, as workloads are shared. Vacant staff positions Eliminate filled faculty positions Eliminate filled staff positions
4
$137,428
18.43
$868,525
8.75
$359,765
Operating expenses
$608,616
Part of the operations and maintenance reduction affects the size of the horse and cattle teaching herds maintained by the college for hands-on instruction of veterinary students. Having fewer animals available will have a significant impact on the quantity of hands-on teaching experiences, which have been a highlight of the TAMU DVM program. Travel expenses
$54,590
Other savings
$804,488 Libraries $3.1 million
$143,587
The college will reduce lecturer support which covers teaching loads for those who are on Faculty Development Leave.
$10,000
$712,457
Operating expenses
Vacant faculty positions
Vacant faculty positions
$40,000
Vacated positions will mean larger enrollment and fewer sections available for students.
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$2,299,225
Departmental support for graduate teaching assistants will be reduced by an estimated 64 positions.
Eliminate filled staff positions
College of Education and Human Development $2.1 million
4 or 5
Some of the infrastructure services would need to be reduced or eliminated. Administrative support to the front office and advising offices may need to be restricted to student workers only. The college might have to eliminate the stockroom and glassware preparation services or reduce the plant and animal care services to student workers only.
$1,664,159
Eliminate filled faculty positions
$500,000
10.75
24 12.5
$97,757
$50,000
These cuts will limit our ability to increase the number and size of certificate programs, thereby limiting appeal to practicing professionals in public service, limit rate of investment in research institutes with likely negative impacts on external funding, limit our ability to build an effective infrastructure for school growth, limit the ability to reach out more vigorously to serve Texas and its urban areas, and limit our ability to engage and serve a growing alumni base.
Vacant faculty positions
$559,490
Vacant staff positions
Bush School of Government and Public Service $600,000 Vacant staff positions
15.75
Student worker wages, supplies and materials expenses will be reduced, eliminated or moved to other sources of funds. Communication expenses and operations and maintenance expenses will be paid from alternative sources.
This action will result in the reduction of eight undergraduate course sections. Eliminate filled faculty positions
$364,999
Other savings
1
Vacant staff positions
3
Operating expenses
Eliminate filled staff positions
Less faculty and student travel to conferences and workshops will hurt dissemination of research and thus hurt the research mission.
College of Engineering $5.5 million
Eliminate filled faculty positions
The nonrenewal of approximately one-third of the college’s budgeted lecturers and senior lecturers will have a serious impact on teaching and research programs. Nonrenewing them will either increase by approximately one-fourth the classroom teaching load of many faculty or will require teaching classes in much larger sizes assuming large enough classrooms are available. Together with the reduction in graduate teaching assistants by a similar amount, the ability to provide individual attention to students will be reduced.
Vacant faculty positions
1
$47,136
Vacant staff positions
6
$237,978
Eliminate filled faculty positions
0
0
Eliminate filled staff positions
17
Operating expenses
$517,094 $2,187,000
Student wages will be reduced by approximately 16% as a result of consolidation of service points and the concomitant reduction in need for student support. Supplies will be reduced. Approval plans and other book purchases will be scaled back as will subscriptions and commercial binding expenditures. Travel expenses
$56,000
Support for travel to professional meetings will be scaled back by approximately 35%. Other savings
$55,000
The number of self-service photocopiers located in library facilities across campus will be reduced.
7/25/10 6:27 PM