Monday October 22, 2001

ASU to cut $13.5 million; NAU to cut $4.7 million

UA officials are not the only ones making difficult decisions about how to satisfy a 4 percent mid-year budget cut.

Arizona State University and Northern Arizona University are also engaged in the process of pulling large amounts of funding from their budgets to hand back to the state.

The cuts come as result of a more than $650 million state deficit, which could inflate once economic figures from after the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks are released.

Nancy Neff, spokeswoman for ASU, said university officials are looking to cut $13.5 million - slightly less than the University of Arizona's $13.8 million - without compromising students' well-being.

"We realize it is going to be difficult to not impact students," she said.

Neff said ASU is implementing several mandates, which include a hiring freeze and making due with older equipment, and is also looking carefully at the need for adjunct professors.

Hiring for those positions is being looked at on a case-by-case basis, Neff said.

In addition, ASU is pulling back money for student advising, graduate teaching assistant scholarships and recruitment of high-profile faculty.

The main difference between Arizona's two largest universities' responses to the cuts is in the form of departmental cuts, said Kay McKay, president of the Arizona Board of Regents.

ASU has not cut any colleges like the UA did Oct. 11 when officials decided to recommend the closing of the Arizona International College, but she said all academic departments will experience across-the-board cuts.

UA President Peter Likins has said departments at the UA will not be affected equally.

McKay said NAU, which needs to cut $4.7 million, has implemented a 75 percent hiring freeze, a freeze on salary increases, a delay in campus construction and a cut in funding for general building operations.

She said all three university presidents are facing difficult decisions, and they realize the effects will be both long term and short term.

"It's important that the presidents assess what they can do, and at the same time try to have the least damaging effect on the educational stability of the institutions," she said.

Legislators plan to meet Nov. 13 in Phoenix for a special session, after which the size of the cuts will be more clearly known.

"I'm at least hopeful they are not really going to cut the university system any more than 4 percent," McKay said. "And if they do, it will only be small amounts."