Directorate Of Technical Education Maharashtra

Three higher education boards reluctantly approved budget cuts Thursday that will lead to faculty furloughs, reduced class offerings and higher tuition and fees.

The moves were taken to implement their portions of a $109 million reduction in higher education funding for the second half of this school year. Board members said that what makes it worse is that they are looking at a cut three times that size in June when a new state budget is adopted.

Cuts approved by the executive committees of the boards that oversee the University of Louisiana System, Community and Technical College and Southern University systems account for about $58 million of the total.

The LSU System, which has not yet approved its reduction plan, is to cut $50.5 million from its campuses, hospitals, research facilities and law and agriculture programs.

UL is set to cut $7.3 million, while South Louisiana Community College would have to reduce its budget by more than half a million and LTC Region 4, which includes Lafayette's campus, would make about $1 million in cuts.

"This is a problem that has short-term gain but long-term pain," said ULS Board Member Andre Coudrain after approving $33.5 million in cuts to ULS campuses. "We've got to rethink the way state government acts toward higher education."

Higher education has to absorb more than one-third of a $341 million statewide budget cut brought on by falling revenues. State colleges and health care are the two largest budget items that do not have constitutional protection against cuts.

Layoffs likely

ULS President Randy Moffett said 70 percent of college funding is personnel, so layoffs are probable.

Besides the cuts, all colleges and universities will have to absorb the $10 million cost of tuition that would have been funded by the state for high school students who are co-enrolled and for low-income students who receive a new assistance called GO Grants and the cost of merit raises for civil service employees. The state underfunded the programs.

During the ULS executive committee meeting, campus presidents spelled out the steps they are taking. Most said there are reducing adjunct faculty, increasing teaching loads on full-time faculty, cutting of spending on equipment, library purchases and new construction, freezing travel, eliminating unfilled positions and rescheduling classes that would have been taught by adjunct faculty.

UL president Joe Savoie said UL will also consider eliminating Friday classes to shut down the university and save on utility costs. The university already shuts down at noon on Fridays. Staff would work longer hours Mondays through Thursdays to keep 40-hour work weeks.

Tough choices

Savoie said he hopes Gov. Bobby Jindal looks at other ways to reduce spending than cutting so much from university budgets.

"I'm hopeful he will exercise some prudence and spread it around more," he said. "We got a direction to cut 7.8 percent but that's not an official directive and there are ways to spread it around."

He also is looking at outside activities of the university, like federal economic development arms that require UL funding - $350,000 for the federal Manufacturing Extension Program of Louisiana and $385,000 for the Louisiana Technical Assistance Center - as possible sources of savings.

"If I have to make a decision between the history department and MEPOL, I'm going with the history department," he said at the meeting. "If I have to decide between the English department and PTAC, I'm going with the English department."

The governor's preliminary higher education plan asks for the Louisiana Community and Technical College System to slash $14.18 million from its seven community colleges, two technical community colleges and eight technical college regions.

But at the meeting Thursday, LCTCS President Joe May said he had only identified $8.14 million that could be cut from the schools without reducing programs and classes. An official order from the governor is expected in January. Before that time May will try to negotiate the final reduction.

"We don't want to hurt our ability to help the needs of workforce development," he said.

Reductions in stages

May outlined how the LCTCS would be impacted by both the $8.14 million reduction and an additional $6 million, which would equal the probable $14.18 million cut. The board passed a resolution authorizing campus presidents to implement the first plan. The additional cuts will be implemented if ordered by the governor.

South Louisiana Community College will reduce its budget by $306,528, or 4 percent, in the first round of cuts. It will limit institutional support and plant operations and curtail new program development. LTC Region 4, which includes Lafayette's campus, will reduce its budget by $570,531 and limit support costs.

If the executive order requests $14.18 million in cuts for the system, SLCC will reduce its budget by 7 percent and cut $533,149. LTC Region 4 would increase its cuts to $1.08 million.

Neither SLCC Chancellor Jan Brobst nor LTC Region 4 Director Phyllis Dupuis returned calls late Thursday afternoon.

The LCTCS board also discussed what will be eliminated next fiscal year when the state will have to overcome a shortfall that is projected to equal between $1 billion and $2 billion. At that point the whole system would reduce its budget by almost 10 percent.

First Vice Chair Vincent St. Blanc III said he has been unable to sleep for the past two nights and wonders where people who lose their jobs will go to be trained in a new field.

"These are people that are staying in my community, paying my taxes," he said. "Boy, this is a hard pill to swallow."