As Gov. Bobby Jindal’s budget announcement draws nearer, the University has asked the deans of its colleges to turn in different budget scenarios to administrators.
Operating budgets with cuts ranging from 5 to 35 percent are being prepared.
In the College of Agriculture, that could mean forgoing more than $1 million.
“What we were asked to do is [find out] what would a 5, 10, 15 percent budget cut scenario look like in our colleges,” said Vice President for Agriculture and Dean Bill Richardson. “For us, we went from $370 [thousand] to $1.1 million [in reduced spending].”
Nothing should be done to delay a student from graduating, Richardson said.
“We’ve got a contract with you,” Richardson said. “You come here, do these things, so then we’ll get you out of here.”
He said because of the crossover in faculty between the AgCenter and the College of Agriculture, cuts for one entity would not show the whole picture.
Thus, he turned in budget scenarios for both entities.
With a budget of about $7.7 million, Richardson said a 5 percent cut would not be fun, but it would be doable.
“Ten, 15 [percent] is going to be a little more tricky,” Richardson said. “[At 15 percent], we’ve got to look at personnel. The 35 percent one was almost hilarious.”
Though he expects things to get “nasty” before they get better, Richardson said he would do everything in his power to protect courses and students.
“We’re going to protect our classes and our students. That’ll be the line of demarcation for me,” Richardson said. “That’s why we’re here, and we may have some areas we’ll have to take a look at, but we’ll do everything we can to protect our classes.”
Richardson said the cuts were too far away to make solid decisions, but he said the college would review the curricula and look at getting rid of duplicate classes.
Richardson said the deans were given freedom to decide what was best for their colleges. His college will go before the budget committee on April 8 as the last one to state its case.
Richardson told his faculty not to panic yet, while School of the Coast and Environment Dean Chris D’Elia remains optimistic.
D’Elia said running funding scenarios is a normal course of action for an administrator to understand his or her budget.
“From everything I’ve heard, the people are working hard to try and figure out an answer, so you have to keep some sense of optimism in this situation,” D’Elia said. “Yeah, if I took a 25 percent cut, I’d be in real trouble, but I don’t think its going to happen.”
Though D’Elia acknowledged the effects of previous years’ budget cuts, including reduced faculty and using those savings to fund other programs, he said his college still runs smoothly.
“If the cuts get heavy enough, then you have to deal with a very different situation,” D’Elia said, “But I’m optimistic. I think the powers that be are going to work something good out for us.”
College of Humanities and Social Sciences Dean Stacia Haynie has turned in the budget scenarios for her college, but she said the decision will ultimately lie with the provost’s office.
Haynie is also confident the leadership team in place will work well with the state.
“All of us are committed as we were through the last round of cuts, and I think that the University did an exceptional job of trying to protect the academic core of the students educational experience and the ability of faculty to continue their research,” Haynie said. “I think it will be much more challenging for us if these cuts materialize.”