Campus reacts to state budget

University administrators have recommended across-the-board cuts in University spending in response to the state budget’s $6.3 million reduction of UNC-Chapel Hill’s budget.

In a memo sent Friday to University deans and vice chancellors, Provost Robert Shelton recommended a 1.75 percent budget cut in academic affairs and a 2.5 percent cut in health affairs.

The proposed cuts were necessitated by the recently approved 2005-07 state budget, which reduces the allocation of state funds to the University by 1.72 percent.

Shelton said he will discuss the proposals with deans and vice chancellors later this week.

“I sent this to them in a draft form,” he said. “And then we’re going to work on the numbers at the dean’s council on Thursday.”

Shelton attributed the difference between health and academic affairs budget cuts to a complicated series of financial considerations.

Some factors, such as scholarships, were not considered when calculating the University’s total budget, he said. Therefore in order to compensate, the two areas’ budgets would be reduced by a different percentage.

Budget cuts would not differ within health affairs and academic affairs — units would be cut equally, Shelton said.

For some campus units the budget cuts would be less harsh because of direct appropriations from the state budget.

The School of Government, for example, received $250,000 for the development of a judicial college.

In addition to the budget cuts, the provost has proposed allocating $1 million to administrative computing.

“We have real needs in administrative computing,” he said.

“We need to develop … a plan to move at least into the 20th century,” he said.

The cuts in state appropriations mark an gradual shift in the University’s funding priorities.

State appropriations have played a gradually smaller role, while other factors, such as tuition and private and government grants, have become more pronounced sources.

The role state appropriations play in UNC-CH’s funding scheme has decreased recently partly because all other sources of revenue — tuition as well as private and government grants — have increased.

Between 1993 and 2004, government contracts and grants awarded to the University have increased from about $210 million to almost $500 million, according to a University finance report.

Campus-based tuition increases are becoming a more important source of revenue as well.

Last year’s campus-based tuition increases will net the University $4.68 million in revenue.

Shelton said although he’s glad to finally have budget numbers, allocating dollars will be difficult.

“This has been a very complicated budget to figure out this year, I think, because the cut has come on top of five years of budget reduction,” he said. “People are down to the bone, but we’ve got to deliver the curriculum.”

Contact the University Editor at udesk@unc.edu.