IkE
Stentorian
VOLUME XXXII ISSUE ONE
The North Carolina School of Science and Mathematics
stentorian@ncssm.edu
AUGUST 2011
State cuts funding for NCSSM
By Olivia Truax
This year, the state made
another round of major budget
cuts to the UNC system.
Because NCSSM is under
the UNC system. Chancellor
Todd Roberts explains what
these cuts mean for the school
and its students.
How much of the
NCSSM budget is
being cut and how
was that amount
decided?
“The overall cut
for NCSSM was
8.4% or $1,558,165;
the net cut was
6.9% or $1,278,315
which was after State
Enrollment Growth Courtesy of NCSSM
Funding. The Chancellor Todd Roberts
distribution of
the cuts is first determined by
the state, who cuts funding
for the UNC system, and then
the system determines how to
appropriate the cuts among
each of the campuses.
The state cut to the UNC
^stem is 12.4%. We were
given an 8.4% cut, but we
received some enrollment
growth funding that brought
the net cut down to 6.9%.
When the UNC system was
appropriating the cuts, it took
into account that we do not
have the ability to raise tuition
and that we are the smallest
campus. There are not as many
expenses we can cut so we
received the lowest cut. The
cuts ranged from 8.4% here to
17.9%, at UNC-
CH.”
What parts
to the NCSSM
budget are
being cut and
how is the
student body
going to feel
these cuts in the
9
coming year.'
“We will
be making a
little over a
million dollars.
in actual cuts in all. This
is the equivalent of about
three and half positions of
administration ($310,000).
We are reducing supplies
and materials in all campus
departments ($310,000). We
will also try to cut dowm
our utility costs ($110,000).
Students will be hearing as
the year goes what they can
do to help us accomplish this -
shorter showers. The reduction
in terms of faculty and staff
will be $175,000 or the
equivalent of three positions,
but we didn’t actually t cut
any positions because of
retirements. We also had
two vacant positions in our
maintenance staff that we did
not fill because it would have
cost $100,000. We didn’t cut
anything that the students will
feel - there will be the same
number of classes offered
and we don’t have any fewer
teaching faculty this year than
last year. We tried to make
reductions that would have
the least impact on the student
population.”
How have budget cuts
affected NCSSM in the past?
“NCSSM received a cut of
6.5% back in 2009 and a 1.5%
cut last year. There have been
many cuts over the past few
years.”
Is there anything students
can do?
“Part of it, as we will talk
about, is ways you can help
US cut down on utilities. Dr.
Barber and the Accept the
Greener Challenge club will be
working to put information out
to students about things you can
do to help lower utility costs,
like taking shorter showers.
The most important thing is to
continue talking to people in
your home communities about
NCSSM because our funding
is dependent on legislators
from across the state. As the ■
budget plans for next year start
to develop, it is important to
continually remind the ■ folks
in the legislature how further
cutting the budget would
affect the students. If cuts
like this continue, it will be
hard to avoid an impact on
the students because faculty
would be the first to go. We’ve
tried to do everything to avoid
impacting students in the past,
but if these'cuts continue, we
“V^thout {the
Million Dollar
Match},we would
have had to cut
that amount...
{which} is the
equivalent of about
four teaching
positions.”
probably would have to offer
less to students. That’s really
not something we want to do.”
What would future cuts
mean for NCSSM? •
“At this point we are
running as efficiently as we can.
We’ve eliminated 15% of our
administrative staff this past
year and our maintenance and
facility staff is understaffed.
We have great folks; they work
hard to keep the campus and
dorms nice, but there are about
five less people than three years
ago doing the same amount of
work. It would be tough to do
another 6.9% worth of cuts
and not have it impact what we
can offer students, in terms of
courses.”
Did the Million Dollar
Match play into the reduction
in how we felt the budget
cuts?
“Absolutely. Because of the
impact of the Million Dollar
Match, our foundation was
able to increase funding to the
school by $280,000. Without
this funding, we would have
had to cut that amount. Just
to put that in context, that is
the equivalent of about four
teaching positions. It was a big
help.”
Debt ceiling increase and major cuts approved
By Caroline DeSaussure
was one of the major obstacles
in passing a bipartisan
agreement.
Late August 2, Congress
approved a debt ceiling
increase, following debates,
compromises, and the
House’s approval of the
bill. The proposal allows
the nation’s debt to
increase by $2.4 trillion,
but also reduces the
federal expenditures by
a sum of equal or greater
value.
“Because neither
party is blameless for the
decisions that led to this
problem, both parties
have a responsibility to
solve it,” said President
Obama in his address to
the country late July. .
Support of the bill was National Debt Clock in New York
spending while the remaining
has been categorized as “non
defense cuts.” These include
City.
Courtesy of Activist
divided, even within the
parties; the most conservative
Republicans and liberal
Democrats were opposed
to the proposal. While both
parties agreed that raising the
debt ceiling would only be
acceptable if accompanied
by severe spending cuts or
sizeable tax increases, the
extent and details of these cuts
Over the next decade, the
bill plans for spending cuts
of $917 billion. This is the
first of two major cuts and, to
the relief of Democrats, will
not cut funding to entitlement
programs, such as Medicare
and Social Security. About
one third of this first cut will
be taken away from defense
further limited funding to
education and infrastructure
spending.
The second round of cuts,
concluding the agreement,
allows for the assembly of a
“super committee” in Congress
to authorize reductions in the
federal budget in the amount of
$1.5 trillion by TTianksgiving
of 2011. There, is no promise
of the protection of entitlement
program funding in the second
step of the bill.
Obama acknowledges
that the bill is not perfect and
that it did require substantial
compromises among both
parties. He even remarked
that the journey to the
agreement was messy and
took too long. On. August 1
and 2, respectively, the House
approved the bill by majority
(269-161), followed by the
Senate approval (76-24).
As August 2 and the
threat of defaulting became
more imminent, members
of both parties swallowed
their pride and agreed to the
deal proposed by Obama.
Nevertheless, Democrats are
disappointed that the spending
cuts, as steep as they are, did
not include a rise in taxes.
However, Republicans refused
to negotiate on the matter of
taxes. Republicans questioned
the burden a tax raise would
have on the public. Ultimately,
taxpayers are responsible
for reviving the economy by
spending money, allowing
circulation of capital.
Obama states, “Understand
- raising the debt ceiling does
not allow Congress to spend
more money. It simply gives
our country the ability to pay
the bills that Congress has
already racked up.”
Although the country and
its representatives are quite di
vided on the debt ceiling pro
posal, cooperation and hard
work were needed to pull off
such a monumental task. The
success of the agreement is
unpredictable, as seen by the
stock market behavior follow
ing the passage of the bill. At
first, stocks, particularly the
Dow Jones Industrial Average,
rose upwards of 1%. However,
this rise was later followed by
a sharp drop as concern about
the global economy increased.
Once the long-term
agreement has been fully
enacted and completed, there
is word of a possible “balanced
budget amendment” in the
future.
Students share
Over SO clubs
thoughts about
available for
NCSSM discipline
students at NCSSM
Page 3
Pages 4 S- 5
Exploring
Durham: 10
student picks to
get your grub on
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