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Budget cuts hit universities nationwide

Drastic budget cuts to higher education are forcing public university officials to take unprecedented measures.

The UNC system has already lost $620 million in state funding in the past four years and expects to lose millions more this year.

While administrators in North Carolina are looking at steep tuition increases and program cuts, some other states, such as California, are proposing budget cuts as high as $500 million in a single year.

Proposed solutions across the country range from raising tuition by 30 percent in Pennsylvania to eliminating tenure programs for professors in North Carolina.

College administrators are scrambling to prepare for the worst but will not find out exactly how much they need to cut until the summer, when state legislatures finalize the budget.

California

California Gov. Jerry Brown has proposed slashing state funding to the university system to help cope with the state’s expected $25 billion deficit.

Enacting $500 million in cuts would force universities, such as University of California-Berkeley, to run at their 1998-’99 levels — when there were 73,000 fewer students in the system.

Leslie Sepuka, spokeswoman of the system president’s office, said the universities are looking into a wide variety of options to cope with the financial burden.

“In an effort to soften the impact on campuses, UC’s Office of the President will absorb a $50 million cut,” Sepuka said.

She said the system is working to spare academic programs by allocating most of the reductions to administrative functions.

“But even with those measures, they anticipate staff layoffs, deferring faculty hiring, enrolling more out-of-state students and consolidating or cutting some programs,” Sepuka said.

The system has already approved an 8 percent tuition increase for the next school year but that could increase if the state legislature does not extend taxes that are expected to expire this summer.

UC-system President Mark Yudof said the road ahead will be difficult and all remedies must be considered.

“This is 20 years of reduced funding for the university,” Yudof said at a system board meeting.

“We need a long-term plan. Our collective job is to figure out how to do it.”

Pennsylvania

Officials with the Pennsylvania State System of Higher Education are optimistic despite talks of a 54 percent cut.

Kenn Marshall, spokesman for the system, said the universities haven’t made any specific plans to deal with the cuts at this point.

“It’s still early in the process and we’re working very hard to restore some of those proposed cuts,” Marshall said.

He said there has been a lot of public outcry against the cuts. Students and faculty held a rally outside the state capital last week.

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Kevin Kodish, spokesman for the Association of Pennsylvania State College and University Faculties, called the governor’s proposed cuts “the worst starting point anyone can ever imagine.”

“This will set our system back to prior to 1983-level funding,” Kodish said. “Even then the state supplied two-thirds of the money to run the schools and tuition supplied the other one-third.”

Kodish said these cuts would mean a complete reversal of student and state funding roles and could potentially raise tuition by as much as 30 percent.

“Last year, there was a reduction but we had federal stimulus money, which was used to plug the hole in the lack of state funding,” Kodish said.

“But this year, that money is gone.”

Nevada

The University of Nevada, Reno is taking a different approach to dealing with the expected lack of state funding.

Nevada’s eight state-funded universities have already approved cuts totaling more than $100 million.

The Reno campus has taken a top-down approach to reducing costs, said Jane Tors, spokeswoman for the university.

The school’s most recent budget report calls for its first round of cuts — a reduction of $26 million and elimination of 225 positions.

The school could have to cut as much as $60 million before all is said and done, Tors said.

Nevada schools have already implemented controversial differential program fees in some areas of study.

These fees allow schools to charge additional fees to students in particular programs, such as mining and engineering at the Reno campus.

The school plans to eliminate its French major as well as academic programs in theater and dance.

“We’re trying to preserve areas of particular interest and value to the state and to our students,” Tors said. “We have held on to and tried to maintain the programs that are necessary to Nevada’s future and culture.”

Contact the State & National Editor at state@dailytarheel.com.

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