Proposals from all university units to reduce budget by 4 percent have been approved by administrators, but Southern Illinois U. Carbondale Chancellor Rita Cheng said more might need to be cut if enrollment drops in the fall.
Cheng said she asked all university units to send proposals that reduce their upcoming year’s budget by an average of 4 percent, to make up the almost $15 million lost because of a lack of money in the cash reserves. She said her main goal in looking at the proposals was to make sure the units could still maintain their academic goals.
“We wanted to make sure the quality of our instruction and research was not compromised,” she said. “We felt the deans and the faculty would know best how to manage with 4 percent less money.”
Among the reasons to make up for a loss of $15 million includes the continued enrollment decrease, which has dropped every year since 2005, Cheng said. She said the 4 percent cuts would make up about half of the $15 million loss.
If enrollment does not increase and less money than planned comes from tuition, Cheng said the university would look into possible furlough days.
Most of the proposals include cutting down on business travel, research equipment and administrative costs, while also removing the salaries of jobs that are currently unfilled.
Jay Means, dean of the College of Science, said his department has been preparing for a wide variety of budget cuts for the past year, but said that did not make the preparation any easier.
“Over 94.5 percent of our budget is people,” Means said.
He said the college made the necessary cuts to administrative costs and supplies, but it was not enough as some non-tenured track faculty had to be laid off.
Susan Tulis, associate dean of library affairs, said her department has yet to finalize all of its cuts, but it faces some unique challenges compared to other university units.
“We may have to have more research sharing with other libraries in and outside the state,” she said. “It’s not just us facing these problems — all libraries in Illinois and probably nationwide are facing cuts. It does impact the materials we are able to access and use.”
Cheng said Interim Provost Don Rice reviewed all proposals from the academic units, while she reviewed proposals sent by the vice chancellors and other non-academic units. All the proposals are approved and the units will go into the next year working with their proposals, Cheng said.
Cheng said administrators decided on the 4 percent reduction after an exercise in the spring where all units were asked to decrease budgets by 10 percent showed how a cut that big would affect the academic mission of the university.
“There would have been a need to eliminate some classes and there would have been some concerns about whether to provide the support structuring for tutoring and supplemental instruction,” Cheng said. “So when we had the conversation about how (10 percent) would be too much, we came up with 4 percent. The 4 percent was felt to be difficult, but manageable.”
Means said the cuts especially hurt his college since enrollment and research productivity has been increasing. He said the removal of faculty hurts potential growth.
“Anytime you lose people or you give up people, you lessen the potential for the college to do something,” Means said. “Whether offering different courses, or (having) specialized researchers. It’s unfortunate, but it is the reality of our situation right now.”
The main focus on preparing the budget reduction was to minimize the impact on students, Means said.
Cheng said administrators are determined to make sure that even with the budget cuts, the university sticks with its mission to help students.
“It’s been a difficult time, but we are determined to manage and make sure we do not compromise quality,” she said.