There’s an old joke about the Georgia state legislature: if the whole thing picked up and moved to Florida, it’d raise the collective IQs of both states. It’d probably also save the state from cutting the throats of the next two generations of residents.
The legislature is currently considering a $300 million cut to the University System of Georgia (USG). A cut of this magnitude would all but spell doom for the long-term survival of AASU and would destroy any chance Georgia has of training or recruiting citizens for the global economy or attracting any business with more specialized needs than Ditch Diggers, Inc.
For AASU, this cut represents a total of $5.285 million, right around 10 percent of the institutional budget. According to an impact assessment by the USG, that cut means a near or even complete elimination of the Liberty Center and the Brunswick Center, throwing out 454 students and 16 faculty and staff.
It also means eliminating five academic programs and departments, which means “1191 students will not have the major of choice; larger class sizes; lower quality of advising; fewer course sections will be offered; increased time to completion of degrees.”
It means “57 faculty and staff positions will be eliminated; loss of faculty expertise and
experience; inability to recruit talented faculty in the future; additional burden to faculty and staff in departments.”
It means “Negative impact to the university for loss of talented, experienced faculty and staff; inability to recruit students to majors; loss of momentum to improve retention, progression, graduation; negative impact on reputation for quality instruction.”
It means that 12 percent of full-time employees will be out of work. And in the USG’s own words, it will be a “devastating loss of the ability to serve the university constituency and to fulfill the university mission. Long term damage the reputation of the university, the quality of
instruction, and the ability to attract students, faculty, and staff.”
This isn’t a $75 fee or a cut to the travel budget. This is for all the marbles; we’re playing for keeps now. This budget cut will happen to every university and will damage all of them severely, many irreparably.
Should we let the state legislature fulfill a short-term budget gap—admittedly a large one—by robbing the money from future generations of Georgians and from ourselves, we will face a daunting challenge economically for the future of this state. We won’t get new jobs; no new business will move here or be able to open here because the workforce just won’t have the education to support them.
Contact your congressmen, your senators, your state representatives, senators and the governor. The Inkwell web site will have links to find out who they are so you can call or write.
Higher education in Georgia will once again become the province of the rich and well-connected, and the manufacturing jobs that let people be middle class, raise a family and send their kids to college won’t be here to correct the problem.
The promise of America is not fame, subsistence or subservience; our America is built on the idea that you can make your own way in the world because this nation provides you with the opportunity and the resources that make it possible. America gives you the chance to succeed and for your children to succeed if only you put in your effort.
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