UF is looking at a possible $49-million cut in state funding next year, now that the state's budget has been finalized by the House and Senate.
The budget still needs to be approved by Gov. Charlie Crist.
The budget includes about $21 million in tuition revenues from the differential tuition bill recently passed by the Legislature and signed by Crist. The bill allows universities to raise tuition by up to 15 percent each year, though UF already had the ability to raise it by that much for some students.
UF is expected to receive about $42 million next year in federal stimulus funds, which makes up for most of the cut, but UF President Bernie Machen has said he will not use the funds to cover cuts that affect costs that occur every year, like salaries.
UF is expected to receive another stimulus payment of about the same size for the 2010-2011 year.
"It certainly does not make any sense to use one-time money for recurring expenses," UF spokeswoman Janine Sikes said.
She said there are still many details about UF's budget that need to be worked out.
"It's unclear at this point what will be cut, how much will be cut and how it will be cut," she said.
Sikes said Machen will brief UF's Faculty Senate on Friday about the budget.
Machen plans to submit his final budget recommendations to the Board of Trustees, UF's highest governing body, later this month.
The board will take the final vote on the budget.
Under the current version, UF's state funding in 2009-2010 would be reduced to about $540 million, not including tuition appropriations, Sikes said.
This is down from about $702 million in 2006-2007.
UF's expected cut next year is about $23 million to $26 million less than the $72 million to $75 million reduction that UF had been preparing for.
"We are in a little bit better shape than we would have been," Sikes said.
Machen asked all colleges and administrative units in January to present 10 percent budget cut proposals to the Provost's office by April 1. They were released to the public on April 16.
A week after the proposals were posted online, UF's Vice President for Student Affairs Patricia Telles-Irvin announced that two programs in her office - the Center for Leadership and Service and Multicultural and Diversity Affairs - were no longer in danger of being cut.
"These programs are too precious to me and the university," she told about 50 students at a question-and-answer session in the Reitz Union Auditorium.
She said she would try to find private funds to cover the $508,000 cost of the programs, which include programs for black, Hispanic, Asian and LGBT students.
"The funding will be there; I will just have to find a different strategy," Telles-Irvin said.
Despite the announcement, about 30 students marched from the Reitz Union to Tigert Hall, where they delivered an oversize letter signed by students to Telles-Irvin, urging the administration to work with students on the budget cut issue.
About 10 students then held a sit-in in the waiting area outside Telles-Irvin's office.
