Despite plans to announce next year's specific budget cuts at Thursday's Faculty Senate meeting, UF President Bernie Machen said he would delay his recommendations until the Florida Legislature ends its session and finalizes the state budget in May.
But Machen was able to offer some insight into how enrollment and faculty positions could be affected in light of what he expects to be a roughly $50 million cut.
At a meeting with Alligator reporters Thursday, he referred to the situation as the "worst budget cut I've endured in 30 years of higher education."
While he said layoffs would be a last resort, he's not ruling them out.
He said his first priority would be protecting the "essence of this place," specifically tenured and tenure-track faculty members.
"Quality is our leading product," he said at the Senate meeting.
"It's the thing that separates us from all the other universities in the area."
Each college is already planning for a hypothetical 6 percent budget cut, and layoff decisions will be made at the college level.
In his meeting with the Alligator, Machen said his charge from the Board of Trustees, UF's highest governing body, was to ensure UF's colleges didn't suffer across-the-board cuts, which is why he asked them to come up with their own solutions.
"Across the board would be a prescription for mediocrity," he said.
Machen said a few of the proposals he's already seen have left certain positions unfilled in preparation for cuts.
In that case, those vacant positions could be eliminated, and no current faculty members in that college would be impacted.
However, he said UF still has to worry about the indirect effects of fewer teachers, such as an increased student-faculty ratio.
"A dilution of quality is really cheating future generations," Machen said.
UF's ratio is currently 21:1.
Machen said the goal is to lower the ratio to 20:1.
In order to lower that proportion while losing faculty, he said UF would most likely reduce enrollment.
UF has already decreased next year's transfer enrollment by 1,000 students.
Machen said UF might continue to annually reduce the number of transfer students by 1,000 for the next four years.
Freshman enrollment could also take a cut, he added.
He also hopes to offer incentives to encourage students to take more credits and graduate sooner, making room for more incoming students, he said at the Alligator meeting.
In other Faculty Senate business, senators elected Jack Mecholsky, a UF engineering professor, as the 2009-2010 Senate chairman.
In the 2008-2009 academic year, Mecholsky will substitute for the acting chairman when needed.
