Budget Update January 29, 2009

Colleagues:

Just another budget update.

We expect the next state revenue forecast to be released February 20. Everyone expects a significant reduction in revenue. This may prompt the governor and legislature to cut budgets of all agencies, including higher education. The difficulty with this budget rescission is that so late in the year, there are few things that can be cut. On February 23 we hope to see President Obama’s stimulus package. The House version (which passed yesterday) has substantial funding to partially relieve state cuts to public education. We are tracking these developments in the Congress and state legislature closely. Earlier this week, the latest issue of the Public and Government Affairs Update was posted at http://advancement.uoregon.edu/?p=pga/gov and I encourage you to read this bi-weekly newsletter.

The UO Ad Hoc Budget Planning Committee will have its first meeting February 17th to get prepared to make recommendations on how the University will approach any cuts.

In the mean time, we are tightening our belts centrally. At the urging of the Faculty Advisory Council we have furloughed the faculty office renovation program for this summer. The $100,000 saved will reduce the amount of cutting we need to do. We hope to pick up the renovation program again next year. Renovations funded recently by the state or federal government for deferred maintenance will continue since the funds are dedicated, designed to stimulate economic activity, and at no cost to the University.

We were in discussion with some high profile speakers for graduation and convocation that charge significant speaker fees. We are working on canceling those arrangements. Again, saving reduces cuts.
After a suggestion by ASUO and extended discussion led by the Vice President for Student Affairs, Robin Holmes, we have decided to request permission from the OUS to reduce the incidental fee for students in Spring quarter. For full time undergraduate and graduate students this is a savings of about $100.

The Department of Intercollegiate Athletics has imposed a hiring freeze for noncritical positions, has reduced staff travel for games, has frozen noncritical equipment purchases, and is considering lower cost travel options for teams (buses).

Help us find more such savings. If you have an idea for a significant expense reduction, please pass it along to your dean, vice-president or vice-provost. Along the way, please turn out the lights in the room you are leaving.

In economic times such as these the common wisdom is to protect “core activities” and cut from the rest. But after years of such cuts we are nothing but core activities. We recognize that even modest cuts will impact student experiences and research productivity. Our position is that revenue enhancement is the only solution to our current challenges. Luckily, we have many opportunities including new revenue under consideration by the legislature, the federal stimulus, student enrollment growth and potential tuition increases. We will be evaluating all of these options over the coming weeks and months. While tuition increases are unpopular, they are preferable to students taking six
years to graduate because of lack of class availability. We will redouble our commitment to access through higher financial aid.

President Frohnmayer has made saving campus jobs a high priority. Truth is, we can’t really spare anyone.

More information will be passed on after the February 20 revenue forecast.

Regards, Jim