#04-214
Sept. 13, 2004

GSW faces serious budget cuts

Layoffs, program elimination possible as cumulative cuts top $2.5 million

AMERICUS, Ga.--Georgia Southwestern State University is strategizing to absorb yet another round of budget cuts. 

New State of Georgia budget cuts, impacting the University System of Georgia during the current fiscal year, are forcing GSW to prepare for a $472,366 budget reduction, impacting overall programs and possibly resulting in some personnel layoffs. 

GSW is painfully affected by the latest round of cuts, part of the requested $68.7 million cut within the University System of Georgia last month mandated by the Office of Planning and Budget. To date, the University System of Georgia's budget has been slashed by $382 million since late 2001. GSW's portion of the overall cuts during the same period totals more than $2.5 million. Georgia Southwestern's general operating budget is about $17.4 million, including nearly $11.4 million in direct state allocations. 

The budget reduction hits as GSW welcomes its largest enrollment of undergraduate students since 1998. 

"These cuts are going to force some very difficult decisions at Georgia Southwestern over the next few months," said GSW President Michael L. Hanes, Ph.D. "This university has taken its stewardship of state funds very seriously, and our faculty and staff continue to work diligently to do more with less. However, it is impossible to continue to absorb these kinds of cuts without the mission of the institution being negatively impacted." 

Since the first round of cuts in 2001, GSW has employed several strategies to reduce the negative effect on students. Administrators continue to volunteer to teach classes, staff have accepted additional responsibilities and consolidation of services has been widespread. Still, since 2001, the University has been forced to cut more than $1.1 million or 13 percent of its state appropriation for academic instruction, which resulted in 17 fewer filled faculty positions, or a reduction of 15 percent in the full-time faculty complement. Meanwhile, nine staff positions have been lost during that same time period. 

The Office of Planning and Budget's order for the additional state budget cut of $179 million means the University System has been asked to bear 38 percent of the total cost. 

Additionally, the budget picture for FY06 appears to be worsening with the news that the University System should expect that longstanding funding formula for Georgia's higher education institutions will not receive full funding. As reported by Chancellor Thomas C. Meredith in his recent comments to the Board of Regents, the cuts, in part, are due to Georgia's hardest hit economic areas: transportation, technology, and tourism. 

"Teaching students doesn't start or end with a professor in a classroom," Meredith said. "Providing a quality academic experience requires advising offices, admissions offices, counseling offices, registration offices, financial aid offices, business offices, bookstores, security and maintenance operations." 

Commenting on the labor-intensive needs, Meredith said, "If attrition and retirements do not produce the required result [budget cuts], then layoffs are inevitable." 

Meredith said the long term strategy of the System is to increase "tuition to manage a portion of the funding gap; adjusting student enrollment and admissions to our actual physical and financial capacity to deliver high-quality in instruction and research; continuing to find efficiencies and savings wherever possible; and cutting support-personnel costs to handle part of the shortfall." 

Hanes said that personnel budget cuts at the University, one of the larger employers in the area, could have a major effect on the local economy. GSW's economic impact on the area is estimated at more than $60.2 million, with an employment impact of 774 jobs for the community. 

Hanes noted that the State of Georgia has made significant investments in Georgia Southwestern since 1997, with facility construction and renovation as well as other infrastructure improvements totaling nearly $45 million. To continue the University's positive momentum, the Board of Regents has approved a GSW request for $14 million in "payback project" funding for new residence halls in the FY06 budget. 

Meanwhile, GSW is pursuing a $12 million capital campaign, attempting to secure private funds from alumni, foundations and friends to continue addressing unmet needs for scholarships and other projects.

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