Gov. Hull expected to give specifics on any possible cut as early as the end of this week

In a memo released Friday, President Peter Likins asked the deans of all colleges to write proposals detailing how they would cut an additional 5 percent from their budget and asked administrators of non-academic departments to make proposals for 10 percent cuts.

Likins expects UA will face a $33 million cut in state funds this year, on top of the $16.6 million ÷ 4.6 percent ÷ cut last year.

Gov. Jane Dee Hull has not declared exactly how much universities will have to cut from their budgets, but a specific dollar figure or percentage is expected by the end of the week, said James Ahlers, Hull's press secretary.

The memo from Likins, Provost George Davis and senior vice president for business affairs Joel Valdez is the first formal step the administration has taken in planning for more campus-wide budget cuts this year.

"I think what the president is trying to do is position us for whatever horrors may be in our future," said Greg Fahey, associate vice president of government relations. "The president is acting in a prudent manner. If we wait until the regular session, the costs have already been absorbed. The ability to deal with the magnitude of cuts becomes more and more difficult as the year goes on."

Hull is meeting with state agencies this week, all of which were asked to cut 10 percent from their budgets.

After the meetings, she will be able to determine how much universities will have to cut, Ahlers said.

Hull has previously stated that all state agencies should plan for a 10 percent budget cut in light of the state's current budget deficit of about $400 million.

But Likins said Hull has told him in the past that she would do what she could to keep UA from losing more state funding.

While Likins acknowledged that the cut coming to UA may be more or less than $33 million, he said that in projecting cuts he has been considering how much money the state must cut in relation to the more than half of Arizona's agencies that are voter-protected against cuts in funding.

UA is among the agencies not protected from funding cuts.

Likins' strategy for dealing with a large cut, depending on the outlook for future years, could be to sell off capital assets.

"I'm not going to pull $33 million out of operations," he said Friday.

Instead, he has asked administrators about strategies for "one-time money sequestering."

For example, the university could sell a residence hall and lease it back in order to get the money that the state wants back, Likins said.

In addition, the president is hoping additional revenue may be achieved through increasing tuition and raising other outside income, such as research grants, said Arizona Board of Regents member Chris Herstam.

Deans and department heads say they are already hard-pressed to cut any more funds from their departments due to the $16.6 million in cuts they had to absorb last year.

Dr. Thomas Baldwin, head of the biochemistry department, said he has no idea how we will cut additional money from his department.

"If we go through with budget cuts right now, we'll have to ask people to go on early retirement," he said.

Laying off tenured faculty is not part of the plan, Davis said in a memo he released Friday.

Gene Sander, dean of the College of Agriculture and Life Sciences, said he will also have to cut personnel if asked to cut another 5 or 10 percent.

"I don't see how we could keep everyone. $3.7 million out of my own college alone was cut last year."

"I guess what has my attention is that the lion share of expenditures of state funds are in personnel · We can't escape these problems without touching the personnel budget, said J. Christopher Maloney, head of the philosophy department.

UA spent $535,710,990 on payroll in 2000 to 2001, according to the 2001-2002 Fact Book.

There is no deadline by which deans must submit their proposals, Davis said.

Stephanie Schwartz contributed to this report.