Law schools dealing with budget cuts, American Lawyer

January 19, 2009
By Karen Sloan

JoAnne Epps got the bad news in September.

Instead of an expected 1% budget increase, the dean of the Temple University James E. Beasley School of Law learned that she would need to cut about 2% of the budget for the current academic year. The reductions were necessary because the Pennsylvania government — facing a major budget shortfall — was preparing to cut funding to the university by more than 4%.

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Florida colleges face 4% budget cuts, fear more in spring, Tampa Tribune

January 14, 2009
By Lindsay Peterson

For universities and colleges across Florida, the bad times started two years ago. And like nearly everyone these days, higher education officials see their finances going from bad to worse.

This week, Florida lawmakers are expected to take 4 percent from the state's college and university budgets for 2008-09. That amounts to $93.5 million for the State University System's 11 institutions.

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Higher-Education Leaders Press Congress for Chunk of Stimulus Funds, Washington Post

December 16, 2008
By Valerie Strauss

More than 40 higher-education leaders from across the country asked Congress today to commit 5 percent of any economic stimulus program to the nation's colleges and universities.

The educators, including University of Virginia President John Casteen III and Chancellor William E. Kirwan of the University System of Maryland, published an open letter in newspapers warning that state budget cuts have harmed the public educational enterprise that is at the heart of the nation's long-term security.

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Universities brace for budget cuts, St. Joseph News (Missouri)

December 15, 2008
By Jimmy Myers

A collective “ugh” is resounding in finance offices across higher education institutions as they brace for possible drastic budget cuts.

The previous economic downturn put the hit on state budgets, which in the 2003 fiscal year trickled down to a 10 percent swipe away from Northwest Missouri State University and Missouri Western State University’s operating budgets.

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For college-bound, new barriers to entry, Wall Street Journal

By Robert Tomsho
December 3, 2008

As public colleges grapple with reductions in state funding, the prospect of reduced access to higher education is looking more likely.

Florida's state universities, squeezed early by the slumping economy's effect on tax revenues, instituted a three-year cap on freshman enrollment last year. The mammoth California State University system -- with 450,000 students -- has announced plans to reduce its head count by up to 10,000 students for the next school year. Absent a boost in state funding, the smaller, more-selective University of California system has warned of a similar reduction. Enrollment limits are also under consideration in Tennessee and Washington.

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For a related article, click here and here.

Next Critis: Higher Education, Huffington Post

By Howard Schweber
November 24, 2008

The financial firms were first, now it's the automakers. We hear estimates of anywhere from 1 million to 3 million jobs at stake, and other industries are lined up to make their own claims about their importance to the long-term health of the economy. President-elect Obama has responded forcefully, unveiling a plan to put up to 2.5 million workers on the federal payroll by January of 2011, putting them to work on infrastructure and energy-related projects. These are terrific steps - the appointment of Timothy Geithner as Treasury Secretary is another - but in the course of these discussion it's time we focused on yet a different danger that is involved in this general economic crisis. I am referring to the danger to America's system and tradition of higher education.

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Economic crisis squeezing colleges, universities, McClachy Newspapers

By Tony Pugh
November 19, 2008

Shrinking endowments, state funding reductions and families struggling to pay tuition are forcing many colleges and universities to cut staff and spending or to delay construction and development plans.

From well-heeled Ivy League schools such as Harvard and Dartmouth to large public institutions such as the California State University system, many schools are facing difficult financial decisions stemming from the nation's economic standstill.

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Pizzas get sliced, bugs snubbed as universities tighten budgets, Bloomberg.com

By Oliver Staley
November 10, 2008

The state of Georgia, pinched by falling tax revenue, is slashing $136 million from the budgets of its public colleges. To save, the schools are cutting jobs, services and even subscriptions to obscure academic journals.

Jill Parrott, 27, a Ph.D. candidate in English at the University of Georgia in Athens, said she may lose access to the Rhetoric Society Quarterly, which costs the school $200 a year.

The library, which is canceling at least 660 journals to save $1.66 million annually, is among hundreds of departments, at 35 schools in the University System of Georgia, that are scrimping. The U.S. economic slowdown means collections of sales and corporate taxes are falling, squeezing state budgets. Like Georgia's, university systems in Nevada, California and New York are among those already facing budget reductions.

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States avoid slashing higher ed money, Stateline.org

By Pauline Vu
July 17, 2008

Tuition at the University of Kentucky will increase 9 percent this fall, University of Maine students will pay about 10 percent more and University of Michigan-Ann Arbor tuition will rise 5.6 percent.

Yet students at those schools could feel lucky they aren’t paying even more. Despite a tough economic climate, several states are attempting to hold down college tuition — or at least not let increases get out of control — by avoiding deep cuts to higher education, an area that states have been quick to slash in past years when funds were low.

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A Budget Battle We Can Learn From, AAUP

By Cary Nelson
July 15, 2008
(reprinted with permission from Cary Nelson, AAUP President)

The entire public higher education community in California faces steep
cuts in state funding if governor Arnold Schwarzenegger's budget plan is
approved. As often with California's large population, the human
consequences are substantial. It is estimated that some 10,000 new
students will have to be turned away this fall from the California State
University system alone unless the legislature rejects the plan this
summer.

The damage that will be done to so many young people is sufficient reason
for all Americans to be concerned. But there is another reason for those
of us in higher education to pay attention: California faculty are
fighting back. From community colleges to the California State University
system to the University of California, faculty groups are taking the lead
in reaching out to citizens of the state to get them involved in
preserving this critical opportunity for California's students.

Faculty members nationwide most often leave this sort of budget advocacy
to senior administrators. But groups like the California Faculty
Association, which represents faculty in the CSU system, realize that
faculty have vastly more personal contacts. They are reaching out to
students, staff, parents, and community members in an ever widening
circle, aiming to bring half a million people to this campaign. They are
arguing in part that college graduates benefit states economically: they
earn more, stimulate in-state innovation, and, in time, pay taxes on
increased income or purchases. Public education is an investment in the
public good.

If they succeed, they will establish a model for other states, one many of
us can follow. For more information about the budget cuts and about the
great work the California Faculty Association is doing, visit its Web site
at http://www.calfac.org. Then visit http://www.cucfa.org to learn about
how the Council of University of California Faculty Associations is
spearheading an effort to "Restore the Promise" and reverse the erosion
and privatization of the University of California budget-trends that have
been exacerbated by the governor's repeated budget cuts.

Then sign a petition and tell the governor the whole country is watching.
To do so, you can go directly to http://www.allianceforthecsu.org.

Cary Nelson, AAUP President

The AAUP Online is an electronic newsletter of the American Association of
University Professors. For more information about the AAUP, visit
http://lyris.eresources.com:81/t/3483523/4160337/470/0/

Why a president turns down a bonus, Inside Higher Ed

July 16, 2008

James Ramsey had specific goals in his contract as president of the University of Louisville, and he met just about every one, entitling him, trustees said, to a bonus of up to $113,857-25 percent of his base salary. In light of his state’s financial hardships and their affect on his institution, however, Ramsey recently decided not to accept the bonus. Now, a decision that some view as purely symbolic is being viewed by others on his campus as a show of solidarity in the midst of a university budget constrained by state cuts.

“At the end of the day, I asked to be treated just like everybody else,” said Ramsey, who will receive a $700 raise instead of a larger bonus, the same percentage all full-time faculty and staff at the university will receive as a result of this year’s 1 percent salary pool increase. “This was a tough budget year for us. I don’t want the attention to be focused on me.”

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Petition re the California State University system, Alliance for the CSU

Lawmakers plan budget cuts in 2008/09 that would leave our 23-campus California State University $386 million in the hole. Thanks to the efforts of the Alliance, the Governor submitted a revised budget proposal in May that restores nearly $100 million dollars to CSU, but proposed cuts of more than $200 million still loom large.

To read more about the Alliance, click here.