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Budget cuts strain colleges
By Diana Matusewic
The effects of budget cuts spanning over two years are still being felt across campus at SCSU.
According to Diana Burlison, associate vice president of administrative affairs, SCSU has cut about $2 million in the past two years.
The difficult task with budget cuts is deciding appropriate class sizes, number of faculty and supplies and equipment.
Each department has made its own sacrifices as a result of these cuts.
Learning Resources and Technology Services had to make permanent cuts of about $250,000 for 2001-2002. The year before that, there were also some one-time cuts.
“Learning Resources and Technology Services had to cut its equipment budget, the book and periodicals budget and the supplies budget,” said Dean Kristi Tornquist.
The College of Science and Engineering has lost all of its money as a result of increased class sizes.
“We had $350,000 worth of additional classes as a result of increased student demand,” said A.I. Musah, science and engineering dean.
Supplies and equipment have also been reduced as well as the faculty.
“Faculty numbers have either remained constant or decreased,” Musah said. “Yet student enrollment in the college has been increasing sharply.”
The Colleges of Fine Arts and Humanities, Social Sciences, Education and the Center for Continuing Studies have all endured similar cutbacks, including increased class sizes, reduced faculty and reduced supplies or all of them. Graduate studies, however, has not been effected.
“We have seen a decline in allocation in all programs for two years now,” said Roland Specht-Jarvis, fine arts and humanities dean. “In the process, the university has used up its reserve except of the $4.5 million that can’t be spent.”
Even with these cutbacks, the colleges have been able to manage.
“At this time we do not know what our allocation is for 2004 and 2005,” Burlison said.
She added that she is concerned about future cuts.
“If you just looked at a 10 percent budget cut for the next two years, that would mean about $5 million a year,” she said. “Eighty percent of our budget is spent on personnel costs, salaries and fringe benefits.”
SCSU deans are hoping to retain a budget that is manageable.
“My hope is that we can manage the cuts so we can preserve the high quality of teaching for students,” said Richard Lewis, dean of the College of Social Sciences.
Specht-Jarvis believes that money is just a minor detail when it comes to the quality of education.
“It would be nicer and easier to work with more money, but we don’t have that,” he said. “It’s completely about attitude and wanting to make a positive change. We want to retain each and every student that comes here. Retention is more important and a positive outlook is more important, as long as the budget is manageable.”
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