By
Eric Staples
May 21, 2009
While programs and departments at the UW are having to make cuts left and right, some are being saved — for the time being.
The university has a reserve of temporary funds available that can be released at the discretion of the provost. Last month, $10 million was made available to mitigate cuts being made in academic departments across the university, but $30 million still remains in the university’s reserves.
Whether or not this money will be used to mitigate other cuts being made on campus has yet to be determined.
“It’s too early to tell,” said Paul Jenny, vice provost of planning and budgeting, regarding whether or not more temporary funds will be utilized to support academic units. “We’ll see what the budget situation is like as the economy continues to unfold.”
Ana Mari Cauce, dean of the College of Arts & Sciences, said the college has received temporary funds in the past. Cauce said the college is “extremely pleased” to receive temporary funds from the provost’s office again this year.
The temporary funds come from a reserve generated by the university’s excess revenue.
“It comes when the university’s revenue is greater than the budget,” Jenny said. “Imagine that you’re getting your monthly paycheck, and you’re expecting it to be $1,000, but instead, you get $1,100. That extra $100 can be budgeted into your next month.”
The excess revenue is generated through sources such as summer tuition and over-enrollment.
“The idea behind over-enrollment is basically there is a certain percentage of people who are predicted to drop out, and if they don’t drop out, the revenue generated from that is put into the temporary fund,” said UW freshman Isaiah Billingsley, the only undergraduate serving on the Faculty Senate Planning & Budgeting Committee, one of the two committees that sets the UW’s budget.
Although there is more awareness about the temporary funds this year due to the economy, temporary funding from the reserve isn’t solely used for emergency purposes. While creating the 2009 fiscal year budget, the university adopted $3 million from temporary funds for non-emergency purposes.
“Two million was used for minor miscellaneous items,” Jenny said. “And 1 million was used in a commitment to the chief investment office.”
The temporary funds are always kept in mind in times of financial emergencies — like the 26 percent cut in state funding the university is currently facing.
“Once we got a sense of the size of the cut, it became clear we’d have to provide more of a soft landing,” Jenny said. “We definitely knew we had the reserves, and when the budget for higher education was known, we knew it was appropriate to use them.”
Even though the College of Arts & Sciences can’t use the temporary money to hire integral full-time faculty and staff members — Cauce suspects the college has lost 25 faculty positions this year alone — it doesn’t have to look hard to find plenty of uses for the temporary funds.
“If additional temporary funds are made available,” Cauce said, “we will certainly request some of those funds to re-institute some of our learning and writing initiatives, which we were not able to fund this year.”
However, Cauce also said she believes it is wise that the university is not exhausting all of its temporary funding at this time, especially considering the unpredictable state of the economy.
“Nobody expects the same level of budget cuts next year as we saw this year; that would be unthinkable,” Cauce said. “But it’s not yet safe to say it’s over.”
Reach reporter Eric Staples at news@dailyuw.com.
5 Comments
#1 GMandarino
on May 21, 2009 at 10:42 a.m.(Federal Way, WA)
As it stands now, the proposed budget the Board of Regents will finalize on June 11th includes a 12% cut to the UW libraries. According the libraries budget models, this will result in the consolidation (read: closure) of 5 branches on the UW campus, loss of 1818 journal subscriptions, staff layoffs and reduced hours of operation. Odegaard will no longer offer a 24 hour service and all the major libraries are slated to close at 5pm during the week and remain closed during the weekends. How can the administration continue to promote the university as a premiere research and educational institution when a majority of students will not longer have sufficient access to libraries? The savings from these cuts will total just under $4 million dollars. A committee that has formed to oppose the closure of the Physics/Astromony library estimates that it would take only $12,000 to keep the library open. Now why has the administration not tapped further monies from their 'temporary funds'? Why are they instead laying off staff and cutting TAs? These are questions we should all demands answers to next week at the Board of Regents' special public meeting at Kane 110, 1-3pm.
#2 Joe D.
on May 21, 2009 at 1:34 p.m.(Seattle, WA | UW Community)
President Emmert told anyone in Olympia who would listen that the plan was 'administrative cuts'. He needs to reread the dictionary. These were made to services and service providers. To date please show me the hits taken by associate VP's, Directors, managers, and the like. No I don't mean that they have fewer underlings but that there are fewer of them! Why is there an assistant director of res hall food service, and one for res life in HFS? How can facility services use the elimination of an operational zone to justify additional managerial staff?
President Emmert's leaving the cuts to the department heads without requiring the involvement of line staff and students will leave this place in the hands of the folks that are always so relieved when the students are gone because it's quiet and no bothers them-those are the ones who should be gone and that group is top heavy with pro staff.
#3 Sean K.
on May 21, 2009 at 2:31 p.m.(Seattle, WA | UW Community)
If the libraries close on weekends at 5pm on weekdays President Emmert and anyone associated with this decision should be fired.
Libraries closed? Why the F**K even go here?
#4 Sean K.
on May 21, 2009 at 2:43 p.m.(Seattle, WA | UW Community)
Apologies for the language. The libraries here are amazing - the best part about the University of Washington - If they are compromised the school becomes another collection of classrooms.
The University of Washington spent decades amassing a phenomenal endowment for capital projects and the Husky Promise. Seems like a "Keep UW Libraries Open to All" campaign would need a fraction of that, and is such a potent symbol for the school that I don't see how it could be anything but an easy pitch.
#5 Russ W.
on May 21, 2009 at 4:09 p.m.(UW Campus | UW Community)
The state cuts us loose, and the private sector rides to the rescue? There's a lesson for all the big-government statists out there.
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