Funds returned to help offset larger-than-expected budget cuts

Campaign Arizona - the UA's $1 billion capital campaign - will give back $155,000 to augment the $1 million it has already contributed to help the university offset state-mandated budget cuts.

The money normally would have been distributed to deans for fund-raising projects in their colleges, University of Arizona Foundation spokeswoman Dana Wier said.

She said examples of how the money would have been used include donor recognition banquets and out-of-town outreach activities.

"(The return of funds) will have an impact in that deans will have much less to work with," Wier said.

In a campuswide e-mail distributed last week, UA President Peter Likins and other administrators announced the hand-back of funds.

"This contribution does not completely eliminate the development fund intended for such activities," it stated. "But it reduces it to $51,000 available for the remainder of fiscal year 2002."

The campaign contributed the original $1 million to the university in October to prepare for a 4 percent cut.

But in January, legislators decided on a 4.56 percent cut for the three state universities. The university must locate nearly $2 million in addition to the cuts they made last semester.

The money was returned after administrators began a "quest for 'central' savings" to pay for a larger cut then they had previously anticipated.