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The Daily Tar Heel

System shaken by two crises

Budget, controversy alter UNC priorities

Implementing a $171 million budget cut and eliminating administrative jobs by the hundreds has upended the UNC system’s priorities for the year.

Past priorities such as enrollment growth and research opportunities have been pushed aside by a staggering budget shortfall and public controversies.

“We’ve ended a decade of enormous prosperity,” said Hannah Gage, chairwoman of the Board of Governors, the UNC-system policy-making body.

“Everything has come to a screeching halt. We’re examining every part of the way we do business.”

Almost all other plans and priorities have to be put on the back burner in order to focus on budget cuts and administrative issues, which will dominate the agenda at the Board of Governors’ monthly meeting today and Friday.

“It has eclipsed everything, but we are still working on a very specific action plan,” Gage said. “We’ve got a lot of things going on, but they’re not getting the attention.”

‘A pretty excruciating time’

There will be a session today exclusively for UNC-system President Erskine Bowles to report on campuses’ progress implementing a 10 percent cut.

Chancellors were initially told to cut vertically, such as dissolving one particular institute, rather than across the board, which would involve eliminating one particular position in every department and lead to mediocrity, Gage said.

But after The (Raleigh) News & Observer revealed that administrative growth was eclipsing many other things on campuses, the directive changed.

“We had not fully understood the kind of administrative growth that had gone on during the past five or six years until one of the news outlets brought it to our attention in a less-than-flattering series of stories,” Gage said.

Chancellors were then told to focus 75 to 85 percent of the cuts on administration.

“It’s been a pretty excruciating time for chancellors. … We’re talking about numbers and percentages that are part of a legislative mandate,” Gage said. “On a micro level, chancellors are talking about people’s lives.”

‘Our policy itself was weak’

Public scrutiny also forced a shift in the board’s plans for the year when it became clear that at some schools, administrators were receiving unusually large benefits.

Last month the board discussed chancellors’ benefits, and this month it will discuss benefits for remaining senior administrators.

The system policy on benefits may be too generous and have too many gray areas, Gage said.

“It will be scaled back somewhat so that it reflects a new mindset about operating a public university in an era of limits,” Gage said.

“We found that some of the most extravagant arrangements on campuses had never even made it to their Board of Trustees for approval,” Gage said. “That sent up a red flag, and we began to look more closely … and realize that our policy itself was weak.”

State can’t support growth

Enrollment growth, which largely dictated UNC-system policy the past several years, is taking a backseat.

In the next 18 months, the focus will shift to improving graduation rates and degree attainment.

The UNC system will instead promote distance learning and community college as alternatives to a four-year university. Too often, students enroll at universities without being prepared to finish on time, Gage said.

“What we’ll be doing is putting on the brakes for campuses that have been growing rapidly without showing improved graduation rates,” she said.

At a time when resources are limited, the state legislature is eager to see every penny it spends to show dividends.

“The legislature is having difficulty sustaining our growth,” Gage said. “We’re not certain they will continue to let us grow at the same rate. There may not be the resources.”


Contact the State & National Editor at stntdesk@unc.edu.

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