Prof. group sees big budget cuts

Ohio University faculty members heard a bleak budget outlook for the coming years Tuesday from Faculty Senate's chair at the American Association for University Professor's (AAUP) first brown bag luncheon this school year.

Though the university saw a $2.2 million budget shortfall this year, the state front-loaded the biennial budget, forcing the largest cuts to higher education to come in 2010 and 2011, according to Faculty Senate Chair Joe McLaughlin, who also serves on the university's Budget Planning Council.

The university may need to cut its budget by $20.9 million in fiscal year 2011 and by another $36.5 million in 2012, McLaughlin told faculty members.

"These numbers are going to start to force some of these hard decisions to be made that have been avoided in the past," McLaughlin said.

His numbers came from a spreadsheet created by the budget office based on optimistic revenue and desirable expenditures assumptions. The numbers are yet to be based on any final decisions.

"If we're really going to have to cut $20 million and maybe another $30 million to $40 million, is that even doable?" asked Steve Hays, professor of classics and world religions. "Is there even enough money in the institutional structure to cut this much? The university needs some serious revolutionary thinking about what our future will look like."

The meeting's discussion focused on where the university can make the massive cuts probably needed in the coming years. Some faculty suggested cutting Intercollegiate Athletics altogether while others said they fear the university will institute furloughs, or cuts in salaries through requiring faculty to take time off, in order to balance the budget. Most faculty asserted that furloughs would just be a one-time solution and would not solve the university's bigger problems.

While McLaughlin told faculty members that furloughs have not been discussed seriously, the administration is looking at what academic programs can be eliminated.

"There is a lot of pressure from the president and the trustees on the provost to start eliminating things," said McLaughlin, a professor of English. "Next year at this time the provost needs to point to some things and say, 'We used to do that. Now we don't.'"

Low-enrollment master's programs may be the first to go, McLaughlin said, because in those programs a faculty member is teaching a small number of students and the program is not generating enough revenue.

"We won't get millions out of cutting them, though," Hays said of the lower enrollment master's programs. "I don't see that there's any way we can get rid of $40 million without getting rid of departments."

The budget scenario McLaughlin presented also included a 3.5 percent tuition hike for 2011 and 2012. A 3.5 percent tuition hike needs approval from the Board of Trustees and could amount to $8.4 million in revenue from 2011-2012.

In the budget projection McLaughlin presented, the university lists a 3 percent increase in salaries for 2011 and 2012. This year, OU faculty did not receive any raise in order to help the budget situation.

"I think there's a recognition that the years of zero-percent raises are unsustainable," McLaughlin said.

Rather than cut salaries, McLaughlin said the administration is looking at increasing revenue as much as possible. With revenue increases, though, come additional costs.

Part of OU's funding crisis this year came from a change in the state share of instruction (SSI) formula, where OU saw a $2.2 million budget shortfall this year. The formula is based on graduation and retention rates, course completion, success in attracting, retaining and graduating at-risk students, degree-attainment success, and an increase in the number of students taking science and technology-based courses. "At-risk" students means students eligible for Ohio's need-based financial aid. This formula places a heavy emphasis on increasing enrollment, as well, an area where OU did poorly this year.

Since the new formula's institution, the university has been discussing growing enrollment both to increase tuition revenue and to increase SSI funding, but faculty members caution that an enrollment increase on the Athens campus will raise costs. While the formula stressed the importance of science, technology, engineering, mathematics and medicine, faculty members warned that those areas are some of the most expensive to maintain.

To solve the upcoming budget crisis, faculty members said it will be more helpful to have each university department post its budget, unit-by-unit, on the Internet. That way, faculty members will have an easier time seeing what expenses can be cut.

The brown bag luncheon was the first in a monthly series of meetings the AAUP plans to hold throughout the year, said Norma Pecora, AAUP president and professor of media studies.

"It's an opportunity for faculty to come together for a conversation," Pecora said. "There's no other place where we can do it in this type of cross-unit discussion."

The meeting provided a clearer picture of the budget situation and the difficulties that OU will be facing in the coming years, Pecora said.

"The AAUP, as an organization, is in favor of collective bargaining because we see it as a way of having agency within the institutional structure and participation in faculty governance," said Matthew Friday, AAUP treasurer and assistant professor of art.

Last fall, AAUP members instituted a card drive, approved by Faculty Senate, to move toward a faculty union at OU. The card drive is ongoing.