Signs of cutbacks pop up on campuses

By Laura Diamond

The Atlanta Journal-Constitution

When Georgia’s college students return to campus this month they will have larger classes and smaller course offerings. They will find fewer tutors, reduced library hours and less access to professors.

These changes, forced by 
$275 million in cuts in state funding, may not seem so bad by themselves. But when added up across the state’s 35 public colleges and universities, some officials say, the cuts create long-term damage to students and the state.

Students could have a harder time getting the credits they need to graduate. They may not be able to get the support they need from faculty, tutors or advisers because colleges have either cut positions or can’t fill vacancies to keep up with enrollment.

The cuts come as the University System of Georgia weathers the recession and the loss of about 5.5 percent in state funding for the fiscal year that began July 1.

Bert Brantley, a spokesman for Gov. Sonny Perdue, said the state has to deal with economic reality.

“We can’t spend money we don’t have,” Brantley said. “At the end of the day the limits are the revenue we have coming in.”

More cuts are coming. Perdue announced July 21 that the state must cut spending by an additional 5 percent because of revenue shortfalls. In response, each public college and university must develop plans for what it would cut if its budget was reduced by 4 percent, 6 percent or 8 percent. The state Board of Regents is scheduled to vote on the budget amendments later this month.

Brantley said there are ongoing discussions to minimize the impact of the cuts. He said the University System has leeway on how to cut and raise money. For example, the state Board of Regents ended a policy in April that guaranteed the same tuition for four years, meaning costs will likely increase for incoming freshmen at many campuses.

About two-thirds of a college’s operational budget comes from the state, according to the University System. The bulk of the remainder comes from tuition and other fees.

Compounding the problem, the cuts are coming when more Georgians are going to college. The University System enrolls about 283,000 students, an increase of about 23,000 over the past two years, reflecting natural growth and a population boom in college-age students.

“We will wind up with students not having the same availability of classes or [meetings] with a professor,” said Daniel Papp, president of Kennesaw State University. “We will enlarge classes to the breaking point.”

The University System’s chief academic officer, Susan Herbst, warns that the cutbacks could cause some students to get frustrated and drop out.

“It is severe,” Herbst said. “We are in danger of having lower retention and graduation rates. There will be long-term effects.”

History shows graduation and retention rates drop after budget cuts.

Students who enrolled as freshmen in August 2002 felt the brunt of the budget cuts that came after the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001. The six-year graduation rate for those students was 56.7 percent. That’s a decline from the 57.8 percent graduation rate for students who started in 2001 and the first drop in about a decade.

Graduation and retention rates tend to be stable, so a change greater than half a percentage point is notable, said John Millsaps, a spokesman for the University System.

Retention rates also dropped. The state reached a high of 80.9 percent in 2003 and dropped to 79.6 percent in 2004 and 78.4 percent in 2005. The figure has yet to rebound to 80 percent.

While the decline can’t be attributed to budget cuts alone, Millsaps said colleges were unable to continue or expand support programs for freshmen.

Parent Stephanie Kratofil worries about how the cuts will affect her daughter Meredith, an incoming freshman at Georgia Southern University.

“Will she be able to get her classes? Will she have effective teachers?” Kratofil asked. “I don’t want her to graduate without a quality education.”

In response to the budget cuts, the University of Georgia eliminated 121 of its 1,751 instructional faculty positions, Provost Arnett Mace said. Since each faculty member would teach about four courses, 484 classes that would have been taught by a full-time professor with tenure or on track to receive tenure will be taught by a part-time or temporary faculty member, he said.

As a result, UGA spokesman Tom Jackson said, the university may deliver “a less engaging, rigorous and relevant educational experience in the future.”

UGA also eliminated 47 graduate teaching assistants who worked in different classes such as foreign languages or philosophy. The university had 639 people in this position last fall, Mace said. At a minimum, 47 class sections will either be eliminated or have larger class sizes, he said.

Students and faculty also will have less access to academic journals. For the 2009 fiscal year, UGA canceled 600 journal titles, about 6 percent of its list. For the 2010 fiscal year, an additional 1,800 journals, about 20 percent of the holdings, may be canceled, Jackson said.

Stuart Ivy, president of the UGA Staff Council, said the biggest fear is that the system hasn’t hit rock bottom.

“While we’ve lost positions, I think we’ve maintained the level of research, education and services students expect,” Ivy said. “I don’t know how much longer we can do that if the situation gets much worse.”

Alina Staskevicius, the student body president at the Georgia Institute of Technology, said officials have done a good job explaining budget cuts and must continue to do so to help students understand any reductions in services or increases in class sizes. Many students chose to attend Georgia Tech because of the institution’s high-quality reputation, she said.

“We haven’t really felt any of the cuts yet, and I hope it stays that way,” she said. “When it comes down to it, we came here to have access to quality professors and we want that to continue. I don’t want them to diminish class offerings.”

Leaders at Clayton State University said budget cuts mean the library will be open only six days a week instead of seven. Without the money to hire extra tutors, students may receive extra help in small groups instead of one-on-one contact.

Corlis Cummings, vice president of business and operations, said the university may have to stop holding classes on Fridays to save money if cuts continue.

Two-year colleges are struggling with how to provide support for their students, who historically require more one-on-one attention.

Virginia Michelich, vice president for academic and student affairs at Georgia Perimeter College, said the college can’t hire enough faculty and advisers to keep up with student enrollment. She said the college wants to improve remedial education programs but there is not enough money to do that.

Even in tough budget times, colleges must make graduation a priority, said Dave Spence, president of the Southern Regional Education Board, a nonprofit, nonpartisan group that advocates for education in Georgia and 15 other states.

“Work to help more students graduate should get state resources before just about anything else,” said Spence, who was executive vice chancellor for the state university system from 1987 to 1994. “Graduating students simply must be the first priority in Georgia and every state, considering the economic challenges our nation faces.”

Kratofil wonders what the situation will be like when her younger daughter, an incoming high school freshman, attends college.

“I’m worried about the immediate effect,” she said, “but I fear it’s going to be worse down the line.”