Face the State Staff Report
In the aftermath of worse than expected state budget projections, CU President Bruce Benson is declining to say where or how CU will help make up what is expected to be a multi-million dollar gap in state funding.
BensonUniv. of Colorado
After the state released its revenue forecast Friday, Benson sent an e-mail to members of the CU community Monday (PDF), discussing CU's anticipated budget shortfall.
"It remains to be seen what the impact [of the state budget shortfall] will be on CU," wrote Benson. "We are continuing to plan for a $14 million general fund reduction that we have reported to you previously."
CU's $14 million shortfall comes from a two-year period between fiscal years 2008 and 2010. The university is predicting an $8 million reduction from the general fund for 2008 and 2009, and $6 million for 2009 and 2010.
The administration has been reluctant to identify specific cuts to the budget, although a recent investigation by Face the State revealed that more than 2,000 of CU's 14,901 employees make over $100,000 each year.
Jessica Peck Corry of the Independence Institute's Campus Accountability Project has called on CU to make cuts to salaries and implement caps, especially to administrative salaries unrelated to classroom instruction.
"Another tuition increase for students should be kept off the table," said Corry, who is also an editorial contributor to Face The State. "Colorado's working families have been footing the bill for excessive administrative salaries for too long and enough is enough."
Undergraduate students at CU-Boulder faced an average 9.3 percent tuition increase in 2008 and 9.9 percent average increase in 2007. Total cost of attendance for the average in-state student is now over $20,000 annually. In 2008, the average CU employee received a 5 percent pay raise.
While CU has yet to advocate specific cuts, Benson indicated in his e-mail that he "will provide you more information as soon as we have it, likely next week...Our guiding principle is to protect our academic and research enterprises to the extent possible." He also indicated that the delayed introduction of the state's budget bill, now expected to be next week, along with questions about what access CU will have to federal stimulus funds, are the reason for the hold up.
"It all depends on what the Long Bill says that will be introduced next week," said CU System spokeswoman Deborah Mendez-Wilson. "We are also waiting for Governor Ritter to give us more information on the stimulus package. It will be at least a week or two before we can begin to say how the current budget crisis will affect us."
Forced to find $14 million of cuts in a $2.4 billion budget, CU Regent Tom Lucero says tuition increases aren't the only solution.
"We can certainly make cuts," said Lucero. "There had better be something on the table, not just raising tuition by 30 percent to avoid making cuts. Whether the cuts are shallow and made across the whole system, or narrowly focused on specific departments, there will be something on the table. The reality of it is that you have so many options out there for how to deal with this."
On Monday, CU announced it is cutting departmental awards to save $40,000.