News
Wednesday, October 7, 2009
{The Blue Banner}
Page 2
UNCA’s 8 percent budget cut eliminates student centers
By Cassady Sharp
News Editor
CBSHARP@UNCA.EDU
Several management positions and stu
dent programs with the N.C. Arboretum,
the Environmental Quality Institute and the
Mossbauer Data Center fell victim to an 8
percent budget cut this year, Vice Chancel
lor of Finance John Pierce said last Thurs
day at an open student budget forum.
“There was a lot of pressure on the uni
versity system to reduce centers and insti
tutes,” Pierce said. “The reasoning behind
it was to preserve the core academic mis
sion, and things that were extraneous were
those areas that were cut.”
The state budget suffered a 15 percent
shortfall in 2009, collecting only $17 bil
lion in revenue for a $20 billion budget.
The fiscal financial year ended June 30.
The Student Government Association
and The Blue Banner sponsored the budget
forum, administrated mainly by Pierce, as
well as Vice Chancellor of Student Affairs
Bill Haggard, Vice Chancellor of Budget
and Assessment John Bucher and Assistant
Provost of Budgeting Pat Catterfield.
“Almost hours after the board of gover
nors decided on a 3 percent budget cut, the
state said that, on top of that cut, they were
going to withhold cash and take another 5
percent,” Pierce said. “So we went from a
3 percent cut to an 8 percent cut, and that’s
what we’re dealing with now.”
Although the state had some influence in
what the university eliminated, senior staff
made most specific decisions, according to
Pierce.
“In terms of how we have gone about
our cut, I have really tried to follow the
philosophy that the finance guy isn’t suited
to know what’s best for student affairs,”
Pierce said. “But the people who are clos
est to it, like Bill Haggard for student af
fairs and Jane Fernandes for academic af
fairs, they are. They know where things
are either leaner or fatter, so that’s where
those decisions were made.”
UNC Asheville moved eight salary po
sitions from state funds to funds collected
from student fees, according to Haggard.
Susan Terry - Photography Editor
Vice Chancellor of Finance John Pierce discussed the state’s finan
cial report and its effect on UNCA at the budget forum in Highsmith.
“When we moyed the positions from
state funding to fee funding, to afford that,
we took that money out of administrative
cost and the biggest part of that was trav
el,” Haggard said. “In student affairs, usu
ally every person goes to one conference
and no one traveled last year.”
Director of Academic Affairs Jane Fer
nandes made the ultimate decision to close
the EQI and Mossbauer Data Center, ac
cording to Pierce. The closings of the cen
ters, particularly the EQI, sparked contro
versy in August since most funding came
from grants.
“The EQI did not require a lot of state
funds, but what we did save were costs
from what we would eventually have to
do to renovate Rhoades Hall,” Pierce said.
“Beyond the declining financial perfor
mance of the EQI, when we look at the
relative level of student involvement com
pared to some of the other institutions, that
one probably had less student involve
ment.”
“When we say it’s
complicated, we're
not trying to use
smoke and mirrors, it
really is."
- Bill Haggard,
vice chancellor of
student affairs
Similarly, the decision to close the Moss
bauer Data Center came primarily from a
lack of student involvement rather than ex
cessive costs, according to Pierce.
UNCA saved $1.3 million through man
agement flex reduction, which included
eliminating middle management positions,
facilities personnel, arboretum positions,
realigning funding sources and general
campus administration.
The director of media services, commu
nity relations, prospect research or fund
raising and the assistant director of the
N.C. Center for Creative Retirement made
up most of the eliminated management po
sitions.
“There was a lot of pressure going
through this whole budget process when
the Raleigh News & Observer came outi
with the whole issue of the administrative
blow, as far as the universities were con
cerned,” Pierce said. “There were argu
ments that universities were growing leaps
and bounds in administration compared to
those people focused on academics.”
Administrators consolidated the elimi
nated management positions, according to
Pierce.
“The less resources that we have to ap
ply to fundraising, the harder the rest of us
will have to work,” Pierce said. “The com
munity relations position was outreach to
the community, so what’s happening in- ^
stead of that is that we’re all pitching in to
help that out.”
According to The UNC General Admin
istration and a News & Observer analysis,
university payroll data in August indicated
the UNC system expanded administrative
departments by 28 percent since last year,
while faculty positions grew by 24 percent
and student enrollment grew by 14 per
cent.
UNCA currently spends 54.8 percent of
its total budget on academic support, an
increase of 1 percent since the previous
year.
The SGA plans on holding a series of
upcoming budget forums, including one
solely dedicated to the handling of student
fee funds.
“When we say it’s complicated, we’re
not trying to use smoke and mirrors. It
really is,” Haggard said. “Sometimes the
fogginess is not created by us.”