Comment about University cuts by ASU Pres.

by David Safier

The Pres of ASU sent out a letter today to all faculty, staff and students outlining some of the impact on ASU
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On top of these cuts, the Pearce and Kavanagh proposal would require ASU to cut another $70 million, or 35% of our remaining state funding, in less than five months. Another cut of $155 million is proposed for FY10. Three of our past legislative initiatives — the research infrastructure bill of 2004, the Polytechnic campus construction package of 2006 and the SPEED construction stimulus bill of 2008 – would be defunded. The cuts to our base budget are both cumulative and permanent and to put them into perspective, they are equal to:
· A base General Fund budget reduction of nearly 40% from the FY08 level; or
· Doubling the number of ASU students without state funding to 40,000; or
· Cumulatively reducing per student funding by almost $3,200;
To deal with cuts of this magnitude, we would need to:
· Layoff thousands more employees;
· Have a massive furlough of all remaining employees for two weeks or longer;
· Increase tuition and fees; (replacing the cuts by raising tuition alone would require a tuition rate of almost $11,000 for Arizona residents)
· Close academic programs.
· Close a campus or possibly two.
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Cuts for U of A and NAU are of similar magnitude as are cuts for K-12. At the same time the legislature is proposing making permanent a suspension of the Equalization Tax and making illegal revenue generating programs like the Photo Enforcement on the Highways.
This is like cutting off your head because you're overweight. Call your legislators.