AASU finds alternatives as USG budget cuts continue to hit

The state legislature notified the Georgia Board of Regents (BoR) on Feb. 25 that in order to make up for projected shortfalls in next year’s state budget, they must make cuts across the University System of Georgia (USG). For the fiscal year of 2011, Georgia is looking at a loss as large as $1.1 billion.

Projected cuts were requested by the BoR from the individual institutions to be submitted the following week, causing a rush to have information compiled and ready. The cuts from the USG total $300 million. For AASU, this translates into a $5.2 million in a yearly budget of only $32 million.

Dr. Linda Bleicken, president of AASU, called a meeting for faculty and staff on Feb. 26.

She stressed that the cuts were mandated by the legislature and not simply from the BoR, which was working to solve the issue as best it could.

Bleicken pointed out that AASU was giving proportionally the same amount as other institutions in the system.

Measures to deal with the shortfall at AASU include closing the satellite campuses in Liberty County and Brunswick, terminating 73 full-time faculty and staff and discontinuing five departments. The budget for Student Affairs will likely be cut by a quarter of a million dollars.

“I think the legislatures should make education a higher priority than they currently are,” said Political Science Professor Dr. Daniel Skidmore-Hess. “There have been cuts for the last four budgets in a row, but the University System has always taken a bigger cut.”

Roughly 1,200 students will either have to change majors or leave. Class sizes are slated to increase, while class frequency would decrease to deal with faculty reduction. With a drop in course frequency, the time required for students to complete their degrees is likely to increase as well.

Contrary to earlier rumors, the nursing and education departments will not be cut.

Bill Dawers, an AASU English professor who has been following the crisis, said that the cuts were not entirely unexpected by lawmakers. He said the state ignored the need last year “to make strategic decisions about revenue increases and service cuts.”

Dawers said, “The state’s political leaders hoped irrationally for a dramatic economic turnaround and relied on across-the-board slashes that simply delayed the hard decisions.”

He also commented that further cuts would be required to deal with shortfalls in 2012’s budget. The federal stimulus money is slated to run out at that time, leaving a projected $2.6 billion hole in the state budget.

According to the Georgia Budget and Policy Institute in a press release from March 1, cuts to state programs are not necessarily the best means of balancing the budget. The institute, a non-profit research and analysis group, stated that an increase in revenues would be a more effective way to balance the state budget.

Members of both Georgia’s Senate and House Appropriation Committees issued a statement to address similar concerns on March 4.

Georgia State Senator and Higher Education Committee chairman Seth Harp responded to the idea of alternatives.

Harp said, “We don’t have a choice. We have to balance the budget,” raising taxes to pay for the shortfall in the state budget.

Also on the same day, Gov. Perdue issued a response to the legislature’s mandate for $300 million.

He insisted that two decades of investment in the USG would not be undone while he was in office. He also criticized the idea of raising tuition.

“Somebody ought to be asking the question, ‘When are we going to put higher education in the un-affordable category for the average middle class parent?’”

Perdue referred to the legislature’s move to appropriate the money a “scare-tactic.” He also called the current university system’s quality “world-class.”

Dr. Michael Toma, AASU economics professor, expressed concern that after numerous cuts, quality is the only thing left that can be sacrificed.

“The argument of more for less just doesn’t fly anymore,” Toma said.

After previous cuts at AASU, there are problems with the idea that there are still “productivity gains to be had.”

Toma also stated that the repercussions of these cuts on the state’s economy could be problematic.

“If we undermine the quality of higher educations in Georgia, we potentially and subtly alter the wage earning capacity of the system’s graduates,” Toma said.

He said that the long-term effects of this would “inhibit growth in Georgia’s tax base,” harming the state government for years.

In addition to cutting college and university budgets, the BoR has proposals on the table that include the elimination of Georgia’s 4-H programs.

There are several petitions circulating online against these cuts. There is also an official demonstration day scheduled for March 15 in Atlanta, where protesters will march on the state capitol building.

Several students expressed similar sentiments that an increased sales tax on tobacco and alcohol products is preferable to the proposed budget cuts.

“They aren’t talking about taxing tobacco or alcohol, even though people will still buy them if they did. Some people will not be able to afford the tuition hike, the student fees, the money to transfer to another school, so this could really jeopardize a lot of people’s futures,” said freshman Major Falon.

Freshman Kwame Phillips also weighed in.

“I think they should go to tobacco and alcohol for the money they need to raise. To me, there’s no sense in taking from higher education. They’re cutting from our knowledge, and they’re basically telling me to buy cigarettes rather than get an education,” Phillips said.