The N.C. General Assembly's Joint Appropriations Subcommittee on Education requested last week that UNC-system officials present a plan to cut 7 percent from the system's recurring budget -- a total of $25 million for UNC-CH.
UNC-CH Chancellor James Moeser submitted the University's proposed budget cuts to UNC-system President Molly Broad on Monday afternoon.
The University's report projects that the faculty cuts will leave approximately 178 course sections without instructors in the University's academic affairs division, which includes everything except health affairs.
In health affairs, the proposed faculty reductions are projected to cause the closing of approximately 50 course sections.
In addition to the cuts in faculty, the proposed budget cut for UNC-CH states that staff would be cut by about 90 people, UNC's libraries would suffer a 45 percent funding cut, the travel budget would be cut by more than 50 percent and the equipment funds would be depleted by more than 20 percent on average.
System administrators will now consider the recommendations from UNC-CH and from the other 15 UNC-system campuses and forward the proposal of how to cut the systemwide budget 7 percent to the state legislature.
Nancy Suttenfield, UNC-CH vice chancellor for finance, stressed that the proposed cuts in faculty positions were made only after all other avenues had been exhausted. "We worked in reverse order, making the cuts to instruction very last," she said.
Suttenfield explained the consequences of such drastic staffing cuts. "You can't give up 80 faculty positions and increase student enrollment without something giving," she said. "(There will be) reduced course offerings and sections and larger classes. Take that to its logical conclusion and some students could take longer to graduate because there aren't as many course offerings."
Suttenfield also said the level of education could be affected by a depletion in the future pool of available faculty members. "We already have a difficult time attracting and retaining faculty because our faculty salaries are not competitive with other universities'," she said. "They want stability of funding and competitive compensation."
