State universities plan for $50M in budget cuts

State university officials say they hope students won’t notice a dramatic difference because of $50 million in cuts mandated by the Legislature for Arizona’s university system.

University officials talked this week about some ways they plan to deal with the reductions, which were adopted by the Arizona Board of Regents.

University officials say they don’t have estimates yet on how many employees could be affected by the cuts.

Their plans so far include:

• Arizona State: More than half of the state’s largest university’s $23 million in cuts will come from personnel, including nonrenewals of contracts and leaving some administrative openings vacant. No cuts are planned for faculty; in fact, the university’s growing enrollment means ASU will be hiring more faculty.

“The most noticeable impact will be the responsiveness in administrative offices. That affects both students and staff,” said Rich Stanley, ASU senior vice president and university planner.

• University of Arizona: UA must cut $20 million and plans to reduce staff but won’t eliminate faculty. In some cases, academic departments may hire more lecturers and teaching assistants, which are nontenured positions, rather than tenure-track faculty, UA President Robert Shelton said.

• Northern Arizona: The state’s smallest university faces a $7 million cut. NAU President John Haeger said the university will consider hiring more nontenured faculty. Students may have fewer advisers available.

NAU also will look to hire more assistant and associate professors rather than full professors, who have higher salaries.

Some regents warned that the state’s higher educational system could suffer if additional cuts come in their state funding.

“It is tough to cut this kind of money out, but we’re trying to protect the students’ learning side as much as we can,” Regent Robert Bulla said.

The $50 million in cuts have come as the state grapples with a struggling economy and has had to make the reductions to close a $2 billion budget deficit for the 2008-09 fiscal year.

Lawmakers made cuts in most state programs.