Nearly 200 UA employees will lose their jobs July 1

After having $60.7 million sliced from its budget during the past two years, the UA will have to search for $8 million more to cut from the budget for 2002-2003 due to more cuts in state funding.

The state budget that lawmakers passed for the year beginning in July will mean an $8 million cut in UA funds for next year, unless vetoed by Gov. Jane Dee Hull last night, which was not expected.

The UA will get $4.7 million for enrollment growth funding, which is much better for the university than the original bill the Legislature proposed, said Greg Fahey, associate vice president for government relations.

The original bill would have slashed $6.4 million, with no funding to hire instructors to keep up with growing enrollment.

Some contracts for employees hired on a temporary basis were eliminated this year, leaving 190 UA employees to search for new jobs when their contracts end on June 30.

The Research Support Office will close its doors on June 30 because of a decision made by UA administrators, leaving three employees to find other jobs.

The office relied on a $160,000 budget during the 2001-2002 academic year and worked to assist professors and graduate students on receiving research grants, which brought in more than $281 million last year.

Top UA administrators have been working for the last few months to decide how to make the cuts, said UA Provost George Davis, who has been preparing for a projected overall cut of 9 percent.

That estimated 9 percent ÷ or $28 million ÷ includes the nearly 5 percent that was cut from the 2001-2002 fiscal year.

Cuts are expected to be made in two forms ÷ permanent dollars that will never be replaced, like the funding for Arizona International College, and ăone-time dollarsä that could be restored in the future.

Reductions are being made in most colleges of the university, although exact areas that will suffer will be finalized and announced later this month.

ăI am working with the unit heads in academic affairs to be able to make cuts in the right areas for a balanced budget,ä Davis said.

The Arizona Health Sciences Center is strategically dispersing its cuts to help save the vital programs, said Arizona Health Sciences Center spokesperson George Humphrey.

ăItâs possible some areas wonât be cut. Itâs called strategic saves,ä he said. ăSome areas have been hit so hard already that it is possible that they may be spared.ä

With possible areas that may be cut still undecided, Humphrey said it would be premature to say what areas could be heavily affected.

ăI have been at the university for a while and I donât recall such a cut that impacts health sciences so deeply,ä he said.

Fahey said the problems that are caused by the new budget go far beyond the most recent percentage cut.

UA has been awaiting a final payment of $1.5 million from the state legislature to finish construction on a building on the UA South campus, located in Sierra Vista.

The funding for the Sierra Vista building was revoked when the state legislature decided to get rid of programs that they had already agreed to fund, leaving the UA to find the funding to pay contractors.