State budget cuts will cause ‘damage everywhere’ at UNC

Though a cut in state funding of nearly 18 percent or more than $100 million faces the University, the blow will be softened by additional sources of revenue, administrators said.

The cut will be offset by $20 million in transferred funds from the UNC Health Care System and $8.5 million in enrollment funds from the state.

Bruce Carney, executive vice chancellor and provost, said he is now expecting to allocate $81 million in cuts across the University.

While the funds from the UNC Health Care System and enrollment growth will be helpful, Carney said the cuts will still be widespread.

“There’s going to be damage everywhere,” he said.

Carney said the plans for the implementation of cuts have not been finalized and instructions for deans will be sent out late next week.

“The cuts are so big and the impacts are so dramatic that I want to take my time,” he said.

He said the funding reductions could have the long-term impact of increasing the student-faculty ratio.

“We have a lot of potential problems,” he said.

About the same number of credit hours will be available to students after the cuts, though students can expect larger class sizes, he said.

While the austerity measures will affect all levels of UNC, Carney said the University will allocate a cut of less than 15 percent for the College of Arts and Sciences because the College could not absorb a further reduction in resources.

Karen Gil, dean of the College, said in an email that she did not know the College’s share of budget cuts.

Though Carney said the cuts will have a negative impact on the University, he said he anticipates an improvement in the state’s budgetary troubles that will trickle down to UNC.

“The economic forecast is good,” he said.

Karen McCall, spokeswoman for UNC Health Care, said talks to transfer funds to UNC began in the spring when legislators were deliberating on the state budget in Raleigh.

The system made a formal proposal when the state funding cuts for the UNC system were finalized last month, she said.

UNC Hospitals reported last year that it expected to lose about $300 million in uncompensated care, or one-fifth of the hospital’s total operating expenses.

But McCall said the hospital had an estimated operating margin of 5 to 6 percent for the last fiscal year, freeing up extra funds for UNC.

Chancellor Holden Thorp said he worked on the funds transfer with Thomas Ross, president of the UNC system, and Dr. Bill Roper, dean of the UNC School of Medicine and CEO of UNC Health Care.

Thorp said the funds spared other schools in the UNC system from suffering larger cuts.

“The money from the Health Care system helps us be a good sibling,” he said.

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