Colleges, students prepare for more budget cuts

By Laura Diamond

The Atlanta Journal-Constitution

Georgia’s college students will have fewer professors, shorter library hours and less courses to choose from under budget reduction plans approved on Tuesday by the State Board of Regents.

These proposed cuts are contingency plans that would be implemented if the economy worsens and state tax collections drop. Gov. Sonny Perdue has already ordered a 4 percent spending cut for most agencies, including the University System of Georgia.

The higher education budget started the 2011 fiscal year with $1.92 billion allocated from the state. The 4 percent reduction amounts to a $77 million cut. At 6 percent, the cut will come to $115 million. An 8 percent cut equals $154 million. A 10 percent cut, which would be for the 2012 fiscal year, totals $192 million.

"The cuts are real and they will be permanent," Usha Ramachandran, vice chancellor for fiscal affairs, said prior to the regents meeting. "This is a significant change for our colleges and our students."

These reductions come on top of the cuts campuses have already implemented over the past three years. Some of the proposed cuts include:

• University of Georgia: Reduce maintenance by $2 million and delay hiring faculty at the 4 percent level; Eliminate positions to save about $3 million at the 6 percent level; Reduce hours at the Tate Student Center and Miller Learning Center by 30 percent at the 8 percent level.

• Georgia Tech: Eliminate 35 full-time and 12 part-time positions at the 4 percent level; Eliminate another 30 positions at the 6 percent level; Eliminate another 33 jobs at the 8 percent level.

• Georgia State University: Cut part-time faculty by $2.4 million, resulting in a nearly 5 percent decrease in course section at the 4 percent level; Eliminate 30 jobs through a voluntary retirement plan at the 6 percent level; Implement a second voluntary retirement plan to cut an additional 34 jobs at the 8 percent level.

The budget cuts discussion comes as students are returning to campus for the fall semester.

"We’ve been paying more without receiving any benefits," said Ryan Haney, a Georgia State University graduate student who has organized protests over the cuts and tuition and fee hikes.

This fall tuition increased from about 4 percent at two-year colleges to about 16 percent at some institutions. One top of that, students are paying twice as much for a special fee, ranging from $100 to $200 a semester, depending on the college.

"There’s been a fundamental transformation to our education," Haney said. "The accessibility is going away. We can’t get our courses. We can’t get the professors."

Kaitlin Miller, a member of UGA's Student Government Association, said students are keeping a watchful eye on budget cuts.

"The threat of additional budget cuts has been a looming threat for students for the past several years and perhaps the greatest fear stems from being unsure of where those cuts will primarily come from -- whether from a decrease in classes, teachers, programs, facility access or degree options," she said. "Being unable to predict or influence the outcome of budget decisions is perhaps the greatest reason why students are continually seeking for increased representation on the Board of Regents."

It’s too soon to know which cuts will be implemented. Still, there is expectation that this fiscal year will be challenging and that 2012 will be worse because the state will no longer have access to any federal stimulus money.

The regents approved a $2.1 billion request for the 2012 fiscal year, which includes about $145 million for increased student enrollment.

That request doesn’t take into account the budget reduction plans submitted by colleges. Should those plans be implemented, the systems’ funding would drop to about $1.9 billion, almost on par with the state funding received for the 2007 fiscal year.

Back then the colleges enrolled about 260,000 students. About 316,000 are expected in this fall.

Chancellor Erroll Davis said the state has not abandoned the university system, but support is "going down like a rock." The system gets about $6,230 from the state for each student. The last time funding was that low was in 1996.

"We're doing all we can to make sure they [the students] have a quality, affordable, accessible education," Davis said.