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Carolina Chancellor James Moeser says that it is important for University
employees to give legislators the support and encouragement they will need to
find a way to balance the state budget without crippling its universities,
community colleges and public schools.
The proposed 7 percent cut now being discussed, Moeser said, may still be
avoided. But it will be inevitable if supporters of education do nothing.
Moeser, speaking before the Employee Forum on May 2, said it is not his role or
the University's role to tell legislators what to do to balance the budget. But
obviously, if fewer cuts were to be made, more revenue would be needed.
"I know that the will is there," Moeser said. "We just have to energize that
will."
Part of Carolina's efforts to rally legislative support for sparing education
from a 7 percent cut occurred the day of the Employee Forum meeting, when
students gathered on campus to protest the proposal.
Employee Forum Chair John Heuer suspended much of the forum's business for the
meeting so that members -- including himself -- could join the students.
"We're a community here on this campus with students and faculty and staff,"
Heuer said. "It's in the interest of the University community to support each
other in this regard."
One item the forum did take care of at its meeting was to pass a resolution
supporting Moeser's efforts to make the case to legislators that Carolina's
budget should not be cut.
And on May 3 at a special meeting of the General Faculty, Executive Vice
Chancellor and Provost Robert Shelton and Faculty Chair Sue Estroff reinforced
Moeser's call "to energize that will" of legislators.
Estroff told faculty members that they had at least two weeks to contact
legislators and make the case.
"Many of you have labored for years to develop centers, programs, curricula and
research that could be debilitated by the actions of our lawmakers," Estroff
said. "It is difficult and perhaps unwise to be dispassionate when so much is
on the line.
"This is a time for both passion and pragmatism, for being resolute and for
being respectful of the needs and potential losses for others on this campus.
It is also the time to ask for the help and assistance of the members of the
legislature whose decisions will have such an impact on this University. This
budget is not final yet."
Joseph S. Ferrell, the secretary of the faculty and an expert on the
legislative process, said the critical time to contact legislators will be
after the Senate's Education Appropriations Subcommittee forwards its budget
recommendations to the Senate Budget Committee.
"No doubt many of you grow weary of this seemingly repetitive spring ritual --
the return of the dreaded budget season," Estroff said. "And well we should
grow weary and impatient. Most professionals get rewarded for their successes,
not threatened with losses. Go figure.
"But now we cannot afford to be weary or impatient. Now we cannot slump into
demoralization and despair. Now we have to speak up and out with confidence,
with clarity and with comedy. We have to work with the administration on this
campus and with those elected to serve us to stem the tide of foolish plans to
literally destroy our libraries, decimate the ranks of the faculty, cut the
ranks of the staff and malnourish generations of students to come.
"Now is the time for us to be wily, eloquent and as persuasive as we can be."
Estroff also asked faculty members to weigh in on whether they favored
across-the-board cuts versus deeper cuts targeted at specific programs and
departments. A professor prompted Estroff to raise the question when he warned
against the temptation "to throw the weaker brethren to the wolves to allow the
sled to move faster away from the pack."
The professor urged that if cuts are made, they be distributed in a fairly
equal way.
But faculty members such as Virginia Gray, a political science professor,
disagreed. "I think that the fastest way to become a mediocre university is to
have across-the-board cuts."
A handful of faculty members spoke passionately about their objections to what
could mean a 45 percent cut to the library budget if the 7 percent cut does
happen.
Among them was Jerzy Linderski, the Paddison professor of Latin. "It is a
dangerous game that you play," Linderski told Shelton. "When we look through
the window you see two monuments to the University -- the South Building, the
seat of prudent administrators, and this building, the temple of learning. I am
rather disappointed to see that this building, with its contents, was in the
first line of fire that came from the other."
The University's library is now ranked about 20th in the country based on the
number of books and the amount of money spent. But it is better, Linderski
said, because it is filled with a dedicated staff who are "lovers of books and
lovers of this University, lovers of learning and lovers of students."
Linderski, whose comments drew applause from the assembled faculty, said it is
likely inevitable that the University will experience some losses. "I don't
believe it is prudent to take an axe to this fine tree and say, `Flourish.'"
Shelton responded to Linderski by asking him to join the cause. "That kind of
eloquence is something that needs to be heard in Raleigh," Shelton said. "I
mean this seriously. If you could put pen to paper and express that to our
leaders in Raleigh I think that would be very important to us all."
Throughout the meeting, Shelton stressed to faculty members that he and the
chancellor and other administrators were "walking a tightrope" of responding to
legislative directives on how cuts of 7 percent might be implemented while at
the same time avoiding the false impression that such cuts are bound to
happen.
Moeser said at the Employee Forum meeting that his focus over the days ahead
will be on how to avoid the 7 percent cuts rather than to go through the
exercise of calculating where cuts would be made if such a cut were
implemented.
"We are so blessed at this place with a dedicated and loyal faculty and staff,"
Moeser said. "It's one of the great strengths of the University. I don't want
to damage that fiber in any way, certainly not by putting proposed cuts on the
table that we then might be able to take off the table if we are successful.
"I am optimistic that we can be successful because I believe the will is there
in Raleigh to find the kind of solutions to do the right thing."
Shelton said that in a very short period of time Moeser has established a high
level of credibility both with UNC President Molly Corbett Broad and leaders in
Raleigh.
One thing on the chancellor's side is the recent record of support that voters
demonstrated this past November when they approved the $3.1 billion capital
bond for the state university and community college systems. A 7 percent cut is
a number that stands in stark contrast to the message that voters sent with the
bond issue, Shelton said.
"I have to believe that message was not for building bricks and mortar and then
leaving them empty," Shelton said.
Another thing on Moeser's side is Carolina's long history of service to the
state.
"That is one of the components of our strategy -- to not cry shrilly, but to
talk logically about what Carolina means to this state," Shelton said. "He's
very effective doing that."
For information on how to reach legislators and newspapers throughout the
state, faculty and staff should go to the Office of Government Relations web
site at http://www.unc.edu/govrel/
Shelton stressed that faculty members should be careful to do their lobbying as
citizens of the state, not employees of the University. They should be careful
not to do it either on University time or on paper bearing the University
letterhead.
They should keep in mind, too, that there are other issues and concerns
throughout the state that legislators must grapple with besides their own.
"It's really easy in a university, and I've made this mistake many times, to
think the rest of the world is like us. We get immersed and like what we do. We
have stimulating colleagues. We have a breadth of activities going on," Shelton
said. "But in fact the rest of the state is not like Chapel Hill so it's
important for you to reach out to other parts of the state and again, in your
own words, express why this is so critical to them, not just to us."
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