Faculty reviews budgets looking for cuts

Tara moberly
tmoberly@mscd.edu

Metro faculty and staff are reviewing their budgets, trying to come up with $2.9 million of solutions to the budget crunch.

Metro spokeswoman Cathy Lucas said Jordan has concrete figures for what each department will need to cut based on the current projected budget cuts. Jordan will discuss these numbers at the Feb. 16 town hall meeting.

Cost-containing measures, including a hiring freeze and limited equipment purchases, have been in place since October of last year to prepare the school for possible budget cuts.
Now that Metro has learned how much money they will have to give back this year, President Stephen Jordan has instructed the vice presidents and deans to begin reviewing their budgets and identifying places where they can make cuts.

“Right now those discussions are really happening with the provost and the deans. Those haven’t gotten down to the department level yet,” Associate Dean of the School of Business Ann Murphy said about possible cuts facing the deparment.

While exact details on the cuts may not be available yet, some departments have already begun to feel the squeeze of the financial downturn.

“I expect he’ll (Jordan) cut us the same as everyone else, and that’s fair. That’s what we expect. We don’t expect any special favors, that’s just not right,” Athletic Director Joan McDermott said.
On a national level, all college athletic departments are being hit by the current financial crisis, she said.

“They are talking about cutting down the number of games colleges can play, shortening the seasons by a week or even two weeks. So, at the NCAA level, they are talking about ‘Okay, what can we do to change our policies for colleges for everyone to save money,’” she said.

Softball and baseball teams will be the first casualties of this cut, with their number of games likely to be reduced from 55 to 50 or less per season, McDermott said. Club sports, which are funded separately, will not be affected in the same way as NCAA teams.

“The sad part for clubs is they have to raise almost all their money, so the good part is they don’t have to worry about getting cut. And club sports are very important to us and they’ve continued to grow every year on this campus,” she said.

Metro’s Auraria neighbors are also readying for the task of trimming budgets.

Both UCD and the Auraria Higher Education Center have adopted measure similar to those in place at Metro, limiting travel and holding off on hiring.

“I do know that we have frozen all vacant positions. Things like police officers we will continue to fill, but we’re reviewing all the positions. We’ve also canceled all travel. Conferences, all those types of things have been done away with,” AHEC spokeswoman Julie Hughes said.

Funding for AHEC comes from all three schools on campus in addition to revenues from parking and the Auraria Campus Bookstore.

“We obviously have to figure out ways to do things with less money,” Hughes said.

The University of Colorado system is facing an estimated $14 million in cuts and administrators have already begun to formulate plans for dealing with the decrease.

“I think it’s important to remember that those aren’t hard numbers,” UCD spokeswoman Jacque Montgomery said. “Once we know a figure, we will be able to work quickly to work within those means.”