TABLE OF CONTENTS |
FRONT PAGE
| NEXT ARTICLE |
UNC HOMEPAGE
A 7 percent permanent cut in the University's state budget funding could do
irreparable damage to the quality of the institution, and the harm done could
ripple throughout the state's economy as well, Carolina Chancellor James Moeser
has said.
For the past several days, Moeser and his staff have been responding to a
request by UNC General Administration to identify the equivalent of a 7 percent
-- $25.4 million -- cut in the University's state appropriations. If such a cut
is implemented, it would result in the elimination of more than 80 faculty
positions and more than 90 support staff positions, Moeser wrote in an April 23
letter to UNC President Molly Corbett Broad.
The co-chairs of the N.C. General Assembly's Joint Appropriations
Subcommittee on Education have directed the UNC system to identify potential
budget cuts totaling $125 million as a way to help close a projected state
revenue shortfall of $791 million for 2001-02.
According to UNC General Administration, if a 7 percent cut were applied
evenly to the system's state-supported positions, UNC would be forced to
abolish more than 1,800 positions, including more than 700 faculty positions
systemwide.
Moeser met April 19 with deans and vice chancellors to begin discussions on
where the Carolina campus could find the $25.4 million in cuts should the
situation come down to that.
In his comments to Faculty Council members at their April 20 meeting, the
chancellor said such deliberations deal with a "serious situation."
"This is not an exercise," he said.
Moeser also communicated the urgency of the situation in an April 19 e-mail
message sent to all faculty, staff and students. The cuts, if implemented,
"would affect every part of our teaching, research and service mission," he
wrote.
Moeser said the University is committed to helping the state address its
dire budget situation. However, Moeser wrote in his April 23 letter to Broad,
"we hope that budget deliberators will recognize that our public education
system -- from K-12 to community colleges to the universities -- is the
economic engine that will help pull the state out of its budget crisis."
John Heuer, the chair of the Employee Forum, said he agreed with the
chancellor that a cut of this size would have a devastating effect on the
University and its staff.
"The staff is already suffering from recruitment and retention problems,
before any consideration of budget reductions," Heuer said.
Heuer said the forum has not yet had a chance to discuss a formal response
to the proposed reduction, "but there is no doubt that the issue will be at the
top of everyone's agenda."
At the Faculty Council meeting on April 20, Moeser said the cut posed a
threat to the goal of Carolina becoming the best public university in the
country. He called on the faculty and others to use the threatened cuts to
rally the same kind of support for the University that was demonstrated last
fall when 73 percent of the voters approved construction bonds for the state
university and community college systems.
"How we respond to difficult times will also say a great deal about the
character and quality of this place," Moeser told Faculty Council members. "The
thing which has so buoyed me during this whole year has been the spirit of this
University. And I think now we need to demonstrate that same spirit of
confidence and optimism, even in hard times."
"I do not believe the people of North Carolina want to see their
institutions of higher education damaged," Moeser said. "And we've got to rally
public opinion for higher education, for education generally. This has been a
state that over history has valued education."
Moeser also appealed to faculty members to stick with the University
through these trying times even as job offers from Harvard or Stanford or
elsewhere attempt to lure them away.
"This is a faculty that is filled with distinguished scholars and
teachers," Moeser said. "It is the essence of this University. And I think it's
important for you to say to yourselves as well as to your colleagues, this is a
great institution -- we must not give up on ourselves; we must make this case
and continue to move this institution forward."
While the campus faces a serious situation, "we must not panic," Moeser
said.
"We must avoid the idea that somehow the upward trajectory of this
University is going to be stalled, because I don't believe that would be the
case," he said.
Moeser wrote to Broad in his April 23 letter to her that the University has
been prudent in planning for cuts ranging between 2 percent and 4 percent and
noted that Carolina already has taken cuts to help the state balance its
budget, such as a 1.9 percent reduction for this year. If the cuts are going to
be higher, Moeser asked that the University be given the flexibility to
pinpoint where cuts would do the least damage.
In his letter, Moeser wrote of how other universities had made job offers
to 42 faculty members in the College of Arts and Sciences alone. Proposed
budget cuts of such size would encourage more faculty members to give serious
consideration to such offers, while hampering recruiting efforts as
well.
The letter also outlined these other effects that would result from a 7
percent cut:
In the College of Arts and Sciences, at least 17 faculty positions would
be eliminated, which in turn would require the elimination of 60 class
sections.
In the School of Education, the University's ability to address the
critical teaching shortage facing North Carolina would be reduced. The state
will need about 8,500 new teachers each year for the next 10 years.
In the University's libraries, 5,500 to 6,500 journal subscriptions would
be cancelled, and a cut in the book budget would translate into 15,000 fewer
volumes purchased each year.
In the School of Medicine, less time would be available for teaching and
research as faculty members would be called upon to provide needed health
services.
In the University's plant and maintenance operations, at least 50 staff
positions that would range from engineers to housekeepers would be cut. And
that loss would severely impede the University's ability to repair and maintain
its buildings.
In addressing Faculty Council members, Moeser said Carolina needs to ally
itself with N.C. State University because they represent the two great publicly
funded research universities that in many ways are the most vulnerable to state
cuts.
"They have the most at stake, the most to lose because the greater degree
of excellence in an institution, the greater the fragility of that
institution," Moeser said. "Excellence is a very fragile thing. It doesn't take
great insight to fill an average institution, but it takes great care and
tenacity and perseverance to build a great institution over time and that is
what is at stake in many ways before us at this moment."
Moeser said Carolina "must keep the flame of hope on this campus alive and
well."
"It's really incumbent upon us to tell with passion and conviction why it's
important to the State of North Carolina that a great University exists in
Chapel Hill," he said.
TABLE OF CONTENTS |
FRONT PAGE
| NEXT ARTICLE |
UNC HOMEPAGE