Along with more staff and faculty layoffs, UF's last sport and fitness classes are also on the chopping block after the release of budget cut proposals from three more colleges.
The College of Health and Human Performance proposal, which would cut about $866,000 and lay off 10 faculty and staff, includes eliminating the scuba program, which currently plans to offer seven two-credit scuba diving classes in the fall.
Under the cut, Cheryl Thacker, coordinator of the scuba program, would be laid off, saving the college about $63,000.
Thacker said the cut would also affect a dozen other part-time scuba instructors, two graduate assistants and a repairman, as well as reduce business at dive shops in the city.
"It's not just losing my position," she said, "it's also gonna affect the community."
About 250 to 300 students a semester take the scuba classes, she said. Most sport and fitness classes, which used to include tennis, bowling and baseball, were eliminated after the last round of cuts, she said.
"We were the last holdout," Thacker said.
The college's proposal would also close the Living Well program - which would require cutting the director and a staff member - and would eliminate the Athletic Training Education Program, which teaches students how to prevent and care for sports injuries. Those moves would save about $342,000.
Three faculty members would lose their jobs if the training program is eliminated, and four more staff would be cut if the college's grant support program, which helps faculty apply for grants, is eliminated.
Two vacant faculty positions would also be cut, and a temporary faculty member's contract would not be renewed.
Meanwhile, the College of Engineering's proposal, which would cut about $5.4 million, includes 18 layoffs - 11 staff and seven faculty - which would save about $1.1 million. Eight vacant faculty positions would be eliminated, and the college would hire 23 fewer graduate assistants, saving about $1.3 million. The college would also have less money to spend on hiring temporary staff, such as student workers, cutting funding by about $250,000.
The plan would eliminate the college's funding for UF-EDGE (Electronic Delivery of Graduate Education), its distance education program, and reduce funding for the Particle Engineering and Research Center, saving about $840,000.
The college plans to find other means of funding the programs.
The rest of the money would be saved by not replacing retiring administrative staff, miscellaneous expense reductions and finding new funding for some faculty and staff, said engineering Dean Pramod Khargonekar.
The College of Fine Arts $1.27 million proposal includes at least twelve layoffs-five faculty and seven staff. The proposal also includes giving up the off-campus WARPhaus art studio and gallery, which would save about $111,000.
The proposal would cut funding for four vacant faculty and staff positions and would reduce the number of graduate assistants.
The remaining cuts would come from a reorganization of administrative operations within the college by moving staff from different programs to one location.
