Financial Armageddon for Universities in Arizona?

Several folks have flagged the scary proposals floating around the legislature.  Nothing is official yet, and the pushback--which includes large student rallies--may mean that more reasonable budget cuts are proposed.  Arizona readers:  insights or links to stories about these developments?  Other U.S.  readers:  are other state legislatures contemplating similarly draconian measures?  Readers outside the U.S.:  how is higher education faring in the current economic climate?

UPDATE:  Thanks to a commenter, below, I see that Arizona State University is implementing mandatory unpaid furloughs of two to three weeks for all employees between now and the end of the fiscal year, which is this summer.  More details here.  Faculty must take furlough days on days when they do not have teaching duties. 

This is pretty dramatic, but I fear it's not atypical of what we will see elsewhere as the economic crisis unfolds.

ANOTHER:  The Texas Governor Rick Perry (who is unusually inept even by the standards of Texas politics) has proposed freezing tuition, which could create serious problems given the reliance of UT Austin in recent years on increased tuition to make up for declining state support.  (Tuition was 'deregulated' several years ago, meaning it was no longer micro-managed by the legislature; Perry's proposal, and its bipartisan appeal, signals a possible return to the old days.)  On the other hand, the financial situation in Texas, and the universities, is significantly stronger than elsewhere in the country by all reports I've had from my former colleagues.

Comments

[Anon]

http://president.asu.edu/

[Anon]

http://www.azcentral.com/news/election/azelections/articles/2009/01/29/20090129budget0129.html

[Anon]

One of the instigators of the effort to slash university budgets is Pearce.
http://www.russellpearce.com/

His outdated wikipedia page, but with some of useful context.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Russell_Pearce

Local criticism of Pearce:
http://blogs.phoenixnewtimes.com/bastard/2008/01/nuremburg_redux_russell_pearce.php

His contact information.
http://azleg.gov/MembersPage.asp?Member_ID=109&Legislature=49

[anon]

U Maryland is facing similar cuts. There are to be unpaid furloughs that must be taken on non-teaching days. So, in other words, Maryland is unilaterally instituting salary cuts not in our contract with no compensation whatsoever.

[Andrew Hamilton]

The ASU story, released yesterday afternoon, is that faculty will take nine days of furlough over eight pay periods, while administrators will take 15 days and staff will take 12. Most of us are happy to do so in order to save, at least for now, the staff jobs that were on the chopping block.

[Amy Lara]

anon at 8:46-- there is one advantage of a furlough over a straightforward salary cut: your salary stays the same, so after the crisis your salary will be at its original level. If salaries were cut, there's no reason to think they'd be restored after the crisis.

Kansas hasn't made a decision about this yet, but furloughs are being discussed. Some believe we should insist on cutting teaching days, so students and their parents see the effects of these budget cuts. In a state that historically has underfunded education, I think this would be a powerful message to send. But since everyone is suffering in this economy, there would probably be a public backlash against professors for refusing to sacrifice their "vacations."

[Doug Sylvester]

I am at ASU--and Professor Hamilton's take is correct. It should be noted that, at least for this round, ASU is not being forced to take the same kinds of significant cuts that UofA is taking. Where ASU is taking furloughs, UofA is doing furloughs, staff cuts, administrative reorganizations and other cost cutting measures. Robert Shelton, President of UofA, outlined yesterday's actions as follows.

“Roughly translated, that $40 million cut means with certainty that the following must occur:

• More than 400 jobs will be eliminated, which is roughly equivalent to the entire payroll for such southern Arizona employers as Tucson Newspapers, Inc., Eastern Arizona College, or the City of Sierra Vista.

• The number of colleges the UA operates will have to be reduced from 16 to 13, and up to 50 academic and administrative units will need to be consolidated.

• Every unit on campus will have to sustain an additional 5 percent cut, on top of the 5 percent cut they underwent at the beginning of the fiscal year.

• Every employee will face a mandatory furlough of as much as one week between now and June 30.

The practical impacts of these cuts are obvious and gut-wrenching:

• Class sizes will grow, and they will grow significantly.

• Course offerings will be reduced.”

Some of these measures were taken at ASU in the Fall but, overall, we feel a little lucky up here in Tempe compared to our colleagues in Tucson. That said, we sure wish the legislature would take SOME action to raise revenues rather than placing the entire budget shortfall burden on the backs of public employees.

[Greg Frost-Arnold]

Arizona's neighbor Nevada is in a rough spot too. The budget recently proposed by the governor cuts the operating budget of U. of Nevada-Reno by 34.4%, and U. of Nevada-Las Vegas by 48.3%.

Fortunately, most of the state legislature is against the governor's proposal as it stands. However, it is still very unclear what cuts the legislators' own counter-proposal will contain.

[Bernard Kobes]

At ASU we are required to identify non-teaching furlough days. Apparently, there is no reduction in expectations for total faculty teaching, research, and service, over the course of the semester. On the other hand, we are formally forbidden from working on furlough days. I don't quite see how these are supposed to fit together. Also, I am puzzled why the university is not in legal violation of our employment contracts. The above comment from "Anon" of (presumably) U. Maryland seems to touch on this question as well. Can anyone speak to this?

[ASULaw 1L]

From a recent email from ASU President Crow:

Since June 2008 the reduction of state investment in ASU has been $88 million or 18% of the university’s base state funding in a single fiscal year.
ASU’s per-student funding from the state general fund has now been reduced to what it was 10 years ago:
o $7,976 in 2008
o $6,476 in 1998
o $6,500 for 2009

This amounts to having more than 30,000 of our 67,000 students with no state investment whatsoever.
Consider also what we have already done to meet these cuts:
• More than 550 staff positions eliminated, including four deans positions and at least two dozen academic department chair positions
• More than 200 faculty associate positions eliminated
• Ten- to 15-day furloughs for all employees, including the entire senior administration, deans, varsity coaches and faculty.
• The consolidation of nearly a half dozen schools and of almost two dozen academic departments.
• A reduction in the number of nursing students the university can admit
• A wide variety of cost-saving measures from the reduction of purchases, to energy conservation to a hiring freeze.

To respond to this new budget we still need another $13-15 million in cuts to take. That could mean eliminating another 1,000 jobs, closing a campus, restricting enrollment next fall and increasing tuition and fees.