More budget cuts predicted

Graphic by Roberta Cowan.

David Miller

The Signal

Governor Rick Perry, Lieutenant Governor David Dewhurst and Speaker of the House Joe Straus informed Texas public universities to plan on another budget reduction for the 2011 fiscal year.  Though nothing is set in stone, UHCL is planning for a 20 percent reduction in state funds.

The budget shortfall for the next biennium, 2011-2012 and 2012-2013, would be approximately $15 billion, assuming no changes in growth for state programs or services. Including speculated growth, the shortfall rises to as much as $27 billion.

UHCL’s primary sources of funding are state appropriations and tuition and fees.  The cutback would apply to the state appropriations and does not take into account a number of items that could further offset the reductions such as tuition and fees as well as alumni donations.

“There will be many, many changes over the next four months,” UHCL President William Staples stated in a university-wide e-mail last week. “If the state budget process was a nine-inning baseball game, we are only in the top of the first inning.”  

In a worst-case scenario, UHCL would reduce the amount of non-mandatory courses, eliminate duplicate course sections with low enrollment and increase class sizes.  This defragmenting of courses would help offset whatever state cuts the college takes later this year, so as to avoid raising tuition.

“UHCL is going to try as much as possible to reduce the affects of cuts on students and preserve classroom instruction,” said Beth Hentges, Faculty Senate president and professor of psychology. “I think there are two over-riding concerns for the faculty; that instructional quality is not affected by the budget cuts, and that faculty are directly included in the budgetary process.”

UH is considering furloughs and a layoff proposal, while UHCL campus administrators have stated they are not considering layoffs. The current UHCL proposal does consider cutting vacant positions, a hiring freeze, and a reduction in summer school sections offered this summer.  The plan also includes energy savings.

A major concern for students is how the cuts could influence financial aid.  Billy Satterfield, executive director of financial aid, commented that there will not be any drastic changes to the university’s financial aid, but the Texas Grant could be cut.

One problem, however, is the proposed elimination of all state funding for Texshare, a statewide resource sharing collaboration that provides many of Neumann Library’s most heavily used online databases and e-books.

Karen Wielhorski, executive director of the Alfred R. Neumann Library, said all public and private colleges and universities in the state participate in Texshare, along with 58 community colleges, 542 public libraries and four clinical medicine libraries.

Wielhorski stated that the Texas Library Association is planning a lobbying effort and a rally at the state capital in April during its annual conference.

“The proposed demise of this vital resource sharing program will profoundly affect our students and greatly limit Neumann Library’s ability to maintain important scholarly content online,” Wielhorski said.

The possible repercussions to students if Texshare is eliminated is so great that The Signal plans to investigate with a follow up story next issue.

The legislative session is scheduled to finish in May, but may run longer into special session if an agreement has not been met. Students may not know UHCL’s actual funding for the next biennium until summer.