Colleges to release budget cut plans this week

By Aaron Gould Sheinin

The Atlanta Journal-Constitution

Georgia’s 35 colleges and universities early this week will release their plans for how to make nearly $600 million in cuts for the coming fiscal year.

With state lawmakers facing a potential $1.1 billion budget hole for the fiscal year that begins July 1, the University System of Georgia is potentially facing the brunt of the cuts.

At a joint House-Senate budget hearing Wednesday, Chancellor Erroll Davis said it would take a tuition increase of 77 percent for the colleges to meet a budget cut of $385 million that was being discussed. Those lawmakers will meet again this coming Wednesday to hear the colleges’ plans.

A number of lawmakers gave Davis the OK to do what it takes to raise tuition or do whatever was necessary, although it’s not entirely clear how deep the colleges need to go.

Gov. Sonny Perdue, in his original fiscal 2011 budget recommendation, suggested a cut to the system of $265 million. Lawmakers on Wednesday said they needed another $200 million to $300 million.

But the colleges are assuming the worst-case scenario. The good news, if there is any, is that the University System has mostly already made the $265 million in cuts Perdue called for, said John Millsaps, spokesman for the Board of Regents.

“We asked the presidents what they would do, if we were cut another $300 million, what they would do to meet that reduction.”

Those plans, however, cannot include tuition increases. If tuition has to be increased, it’s a decision the regents will make after lawmakers finalize the state budget.

Millsaps said they hope to have all of the colleges’ plans ready to be delivered by the end of the day today.

Each institution is producing plans based on the size of its budget. For example, Georgia State University will need to cut $34 million from the $178 million recommended in Perdue’s budget. The University of Georgia will have to find $58 million from the $308 million Perdue recommended.

Meanwhile, the state’s college students are getting organized to fight the cuts. More than 1,100 students have joined a Facebook group, USG Students for Quality Education, and are planning protests to fight the cuts.