Fears present with looming budget cuts
While the unavoidable injuries that will result from further budget cuts to higher education are being brought to the forefront in the current legislative session, USU students, faculty and staff are preparing for what is to come.
“There is still some hesitation to fund higher education to an extent,” said Neil Abercrombie, USU’s director of government relations, who will work directly with legislators until the cuts are finalized. “We still need to make our case.”
Legislators proposed another 7 percent cut from all Utah public higher education institution budgets, however, it was proposed that technical schools only be cut by 5.9 percent. The definite percentages cannot be finalized until the state budget is prepared.
“We won’t know the answer until mid-February when the legislature gets updated numbers to see where state revenue is. Then the question will be how do we restore the 7 percent,” Abercrombie said.
No matter what amount Utah legislature decides to cut from higher education, there will be noticeable consequences considering budget cuts that have been implemented throughout previous recession years, said Brent Crosby, ASUSU executive vice president.
“We are down to the bare bones. We can’t have as many teachers teaching and we can’t have as much research,” Crosby said. “We have huge research money coming in and less faculty means less research money.”
Crosby has been discussing potential concerns with college deans and said in his conversation with Caine College of the Arts Dean Craig Jessop, Jessop said higher education needs the arts and the legislature is quick to think it’s not important. Since the beginning of the recession, 17 percent of the arts budget has been cut. Crosby said in his conversation with Jessop they discussed the possibility of programs becoming smaller, such as music therapy, which means allowing fewer students into the program.
Jessop said, “I have tremendous faith in President Albrecht and his staff. They have been magnificent through all of this and I have great trust in their wisdom and ability to manage these situations.”
The arts school continues to receive generous support form donors and members of the community, Jessop said, so he is confident the strength of the programs will be “preserved.”
“I’m an optimist at heart,” he said. “We will make it through these times.”
Charlie Heunemann, associate dean for the College of Humanities and Social Sciences, said he along with other faculty and staff in the college are proactively mapping out multiple scenarios that may result from budget cuts. Undoubtedly, programs will close, departments will have fewer course offerings and large class sizes.
“We are concerned,” Heunemann said, “A 7 percent cut would cause us very difficult times, but we are not going to get worried until the legislative discussion.”
“It would be virtually impossible for this kind of a cut to not seriously affect the quality of student education,” he said.
The mood at Utah’s Capitol building is different this year, Crosby said, and USU student lobbyists’ presentations have been recognized by state legislators. Government Relations Council Chair Kirsten Frank agreed with Crosby and said she believes USU is favoring fairly well considering the high goals the university is continuing to set, which includes a veterinary science program and a variety of groundbreaking research projects.
“People down there know who we are,” Frank said. “We are quite the presence on the Hill this year.”
Frank said she believes the best way to save higher education from the financial threats of the economy is to band together will all Utah universities.
Though the mood is hopeful, there are many legislators who are uninterested in considering the detriment that the budget cuts will be to the future economy, Crosby said, because they see students who taking more than four years to graduate, which is a “waste” of taxpayers’ dollars.
“They are turning on us (college students) for the system the state created,” Crosby said.
Putting money into higher education institutions is a healthy way to fuel the future economy, said USU public relations director John DeVilbiss. He said the most difficult thing USU must do is articulate the relationship between state funds and investing in the future to legislators.
“It’s not something that’s just an expense,” DeVilbiss said. “It’s something that needs to truly be treated as an opportunity for the state of Utah, which it is.”
ASUSU administrative assistant Keenan Nuehring said he and ASUSU President Tyler Tolson have discussed having student review boards in the future as a means to make sure USU student organizations are using funding wisely and making the most of their set budgets. Nuehring said he believes combining some programs, such as USU media outlets, would be a good way to save money and refrain from cutting many programs.
“We talked with President Albrecht and talked about a 5 percent increase to tuition to balance the cuts,” Nuehring said. “We have to spend more money to have a progressive university. It sucks, but it’s how it might need to be.”
Crosby said legislators are currently not interested in raising taxes because of individuals’ suffering financial situations resulting from the down economy. With this in mind, and the many other issues Utah citizens face and are fighting to get funding for, Frank said it will take cunning from USU representatives to ease the financial blow that USU could experience after this legislative session.
“Constituents of the legislators have been wheeling in their child ??asking ‘How can you do this to our child?'” Crosby said.
“Yeah, that’s what we’re up against,” Frank said.
– catherine.meidell@aggiemail.usu.edu