news-record.com

GREENSBORO — It was administrators, not faculty, who bore the brunt of budget cuts last year at UNCG and N.C. A&T.
But if a budget the state House is considering stands, the same can’t be said for the coming year, university leaders said Friday.

“The concern that we have going into next year is that I do not believe that I can significantly cut administration further in areas related to public safety, information technology and business affairs,” UNCG Chancellor Linda Brady said.
“And so, as a result, the bulk of the cuts that we will take in 2010-11 will indeed have to come from the academic side of the house.”

Leaders in higher education are shocked over the steep cuts called for in a budget proposed by the House appropriations subcommittee on education — $175 million worth. The reductions surpass those proposed by the Senate and by Gov. Bev Perdue.

The new cuts are on top of more than $50 million in cuts included in the 2010-11 budget during the last legislative session, UNC system President Erskine Bowles said in a statement.

Overall, the cuts would amount to the loss of 1,700 positions across the system, Bowles said.

“Fully understanding the impacts of these reductions will take some time,” he said. “In all of our previous analyses, we never imagined that reductions would reach this level.”

For the university leaders, those cuts will manifest themselves in the form of larger classes and fewer faculty members, something colleges dealt with on a smaller scale this past academic year.

“It impacts the ability for our students to learn,” Robert Pompey, vice chancellor for business and finance at A&T, said of larger class sizes. “Also, the fewer faculty positions that we have, it reduces the number of classes that we can offer to our students,” making it harder for students to get the classes they need for graduation.

Neither Brady nor Pompey could provide specifics Friday about the number of faculty members who stand to lose their jobs.
But Brady estimated UNCG could lose 55 to 75 faculty positions.

Many of those positions are unfilled but are used to hire adjunct faculty, who teach core general-education courses such as freshman English, foreign languages, history and math.

Because of the difference in salary and benefits between adjunct and full-time faculty, Brady said the university is able to hire multiple adjuncts for what would equal a single faculty position.

The House budget lets universities keep $34.8 million from tuition increases. But system officials sought
$34.9 million for need-based financial aid. The House budget offers just $12 million.

“That’s less than half in a time when more and more of our students are applying for financial aid and ... qualify for need-based financial aid,” Brady said.

The budget also caps enrollment growth in 2011-12 at 1 percent, which Bowles said would deny “qualified students access to the knowledge and skills they need to compete for jobs.”

Even without a formal cap, Brady said she won’t be able to admit as large a freshman class in fall 2011. Normally, UNCG admits about 2,500 freshmen, she said.

“I’m very concerned about admitting students when we know — given the resources we have — we will not be able to provide them the classes that they need.”

The House is scheduled to vote on the budget late next week.

Brady said, ultimately, the budget as it stands now comes down to two issues: access and quality.

It will be impossible for universities to provide access, she said, while limiting the number of freshmen admitted at a time when “everyone understands that students need a college education and that the state needs an educated work force.

“The second piece is quality. Because while we can make — and we already have made — some adjustments by increasing the size of classes, you get to a point at which the quality of education suffers.”

Contact Jonnelle Davis at  373-7080 or jonnelle.davis@news-record.com