Budget cuts would slash UNC's faculty, classes

They’ve embarked on an extensive capital fund-raising campaign and tried their hand at hiking tuition.

But in the puzzle of working out the University’s budget, officials said the pieces just aren’t fitting together.

“It is very frustrating,” said Paul Fulton, a member of the UNC-Chapel Hill Board of Trustees. “Chapel Hill is in a very, very vulnerable situation.”

UNC-CH officials submitted a proposed budget scenario to the UNC-system Office of the President late last week, detailing the impact of a 4 percent budget reduction in state appropriations.

The potential cuts — which amount to more than $16.3 million — would force the University to shave away 65 filled and unfilled faculty positions, to lose 50 to 60 faculty members to competing institutions and to cut 200 class sections.

Several other reductions include canceling searches for tenure track positions, thereby increasing the number of adjunct teaching faculty; reversing progress toward offering more courses with 20 or fewer students; and reducing admissions to and programs in the School of Nursing.

The state has whittled down the University’s budget during the past four years by a total of more than $144 million — $41 million through recurring budget reductions.

“We are talking about a real problem,” Chancellor James Moeser said. “I think this is the first round in a long, long process.”

UNC-CH officials said any more cuts to state-appropriated funding could detract from the University’s mission.

“Now we have reached the point that if cuts at the 4-percent level come to fruition, we will not be able to protect instructional programs as we have in the past,” Moeser said during Thursday’s meeting of the University’s governing board.

Upon hearing about such funding cuts, trustees expressed frustrations with the budgetary process of the UNC-system. Several trustees said that each step of the process — which starts on campus, then works its way through the trustees, the Board of Governors and finally the N.C. General Assembly — waters down the message the University is trying to send about its needs.

Pointing to the UNC-system Board of Governors’ decision on tuition increases, trustees called for change. The BOG froze increases for in-state tuition and reduced out-of-state hikes by $250 after trustees proposed increases for both groups.

“This creates a double crunch that could have been avoided,” Fulton said.

Fulton, who called the process “micromanaging,” said system leaders need to be held responsible for understanding the different needs of all of the 16 campuses.

Research universities such as UNC-CH are under special pressure to compete with top schools in many areas, including faculty salaries.

“Being as close to the University as we are and understanding its needs, we absolutely feel passionately about fulfilling the needs and making it a better place,” said Nelson Schwab, chairman of the trustees’ Audit and Finance Committee.

Officials said they don’t know where else to turn to secure the stability of the University but will continue lobbying efforts with the state.

“Let’s try to educate those who are controlling our destiny,” Schwab said.

Contact the University Editor at udesk@unc.edu.