It is obvious we are beginning a volatile year for UF. The issue at hand is the Department of Computer and Information Science and Engineering dean’s proposal to drastically cut and reform CISE to address budget cuts. But we shouldn’t kid ourselves that similar proposals from other deans aren’t coming.
The budget cuts are serious, and deans are limited in the responses they can make. Most can’t simply ask each department to take a small cut. Due to previous cuts, operating margins are razor-thin, and even a 2-percent cut would require cutting graduate student support or employees.
Moreover, due to union agreements, any employee fired would have to be nontenured or a lecturer. Yet the latter (along with grad students) do the most teaching and cost the least. Under the Responsibility Center Management budget allocation model, the result would be a net loss of funds for the college since it would mean fewer classes.
It is likely that most deans are going to see cutting out whole departments as the only option.
Why are we in this situation? Is it just the bad economy? Partially, but the reality is that the state legislature continues to favor making cuts to university funding. And though UF has raised tuition 60 percent during the past four years, the cuts have always exceeded the increase.
This is a national trend: State governments all over are deciding that public higher education isn’t a priority. The economy is bad, health care costs are rising, and they can’t pay for it all. Something has to give, and that something is higher education.
Why higher ed? A cynical person might suggest it’s because students don’t vote, though there are other reasons, too. Importantly, this has only a loose connection to the economy’s health. This trend was there before the economic downturn. The downturn just hastened it.
As this occurs, public universities have responded in the only way possible: cutting costs and raising tuition. At UF, there are 20 percent fewer professors in the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences than five years ago. Tuition has skyrocketed, doubling at public universities since 1994. Student loans have followed, topping $1 trillion recently. And tuition is going to get much higher here at UF.
Right now, the governor is considering signing a bill to allow UF to become much more independent and raise tuition rapidly to the national average. Most faculty want him to sign it. It’s the only way we survive as a top research and teaching university.
Nobody likes this. But state governments are no longer interested in funding public higher education. Ohio State gets less than 10 percent of its funds from state allocations. Its tuition is nearly twice that of UF’s. To survive, research universities have to become more independent. Student tuition has to skyrocket. The phrase “public university” will be used more sarcastically.
It’s the new reality. Welcome to it.
Anonymous
UF faculty member
