Arts and Sciences to cut positions, classes

The College of Arts and Sciences parceled out budget cuts to its departments late Wednesday, leaving department chairs scrambling to cut costs.

Each of the College’s 37 departments must submit their plans for implementing both the recurring and non-recurring cuts by Feb. 4. Per Chancellor Holden Thorp’s instructions earlier this month, the College must cut $3 million in preparation for a 5 percent cut effective July 1.

The school must also cut $2.1 million this year to account for the additional 3.5 percent in cuts of about $17 million levied by the state this fiscal year.

“It’s inevitably going to affect classroom instruction,” said Karen Gil, dean of the College of Arts and Sciences.

Gil said the cuts could translate to fewer course and section offerings.

Thorp called for the 5 percent cut earlier this year to provide units fair warning for what officials project to be the minimum cut for the 2011-12 fiscal year, as the N.C. General Assembly faces a $3.7 billion shortfall.

With federal stimulus funds and state sales tax set to expire at the end of the current fiscal year, the University has also made preparations for a 10 percent cut and is in the process of preparing for a 15 percent cut.

Gil said the 5 percent cut will not be absorbed uniformly across the College. The cuts for each individual department will depend upon its base budget, number of courses offered and number of students enrolled, among other factors, she said.

“We tried to protect, to the extent that we can, departments that have teaching as their main mission,” Gil said.

She said academic support units like the Writing Center and Information Technology Services absorbed the deepest cuts.

“They don’t teach classes,” Gil said.

After consecutive years of cuts, Allen Glazner, chairman of the geological sciences department, said he had to cut a teaching assistant position this academic year, forcing the department to cut sections of its introductory 101 class.

The cuts projected for next year might force him to cut another, he said.

“Students are going to suffer,” Glazner said. “Another teaching assistant means three more labs.”

Glazner’s department received a $12,500 one-time cut and $18,500 cut for the next fiscal year.

Edward Carlstein, chairman of the department of statistics and operations research, said that his department will take a one-time cut of $18,000 and faces $30,000 in permanent cuts.

He said the cut will lead to less support for graduate students and teaching assistants who grade student’s work and provide one-on-one attention.

“The learning environment won’t be as individualized,” Carlstein said.

Meanwhile, the economics department took a one-time cut of $24,000 and will have its budget reduced by at least $46,000 for the next fiscal year.

Chairman Michael Salemi said the department’s budget cuts represent more than 10 percent of his instructional budget.

“We’re going to do less of helping faculty and less of helping students,” he said.

Salemi said he is still considering how to deal with the cuts. Because a hiring freeze accompanies the 5 percent cut, Salemi said he might not be able to replace retired faculty — and he might have to cut from the secretarial ranks.

“That would mean less access for our students,” Salemi said.

But those cuts are light, he said, compared to the steeper possibilities. If higher cuts occur, Salemi said the department would be forced to offer fewer courses.

“I can’t guarantee that I’d be able to protect first-year seminars,” Salemi said.

Gil said that if further cuts come, the departments might even cut major requirements.

“We don’t really have too many other places to go,” she said.

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