If the Kansas Board of Regents decides that state universities need to cut their budgets for the next two years, Emporia State University is likely to delay hiring on some vacant positions, and new programs planned for ESU’s Overland Park facility may be delayed.
The regents have asked state universities, community colleges and vocational technical schools to submit potential plans to cut their budgets by 2 percent for the current year and by 5 percent in both 2009 and 2010. The Associated Press reported last week that the regents plan to review each institution’s plan at their annual retreat on Aug. 15 in Wichita. In late June, it was reported that numbers for state tax revenues for the 2008 fiscal year had come in $61 million short of expectation.
The budget cuts aren’t a certainty, according to Emporia State President Michael Lane. For ESU, Vice President of Fiscal Affairs Ray Hauke said, the numbers would add up to $711,833 being cut from the budget for 2008 and about $2.5 million for 2009 and 2010.
“At this point, they’ve just asked us to submit a plan in case the revenues continue to decline,” Lane said. “... “We’re working right now to look (at) kind of an overview level of what we’ll do.
“But mostly, since 80 percent of my costs relate to people, what we’ll probably do is leave a fair number of vacancies unhired during that period of time to try to work through until the budget comes back.”
Those vacancies include a number of positions that are open now and some others that Lane anticipates will come open in the next couple of years when faculty retire or resign. But hiring the new dean of ESU’s vaunted Teachers College won’t be put off. Lane said that vacancy, created in May when Tes Mehring accepted the job of provost and vice president of academic affairs, would be filled. Plans call for the new dean to be named by July 2009.
The university has seven new programs planned for its Overland Park facility, including the masters of business administration program, the undergraduate business administration program with an emphasis in marketing and the undergraduate health promotions program.
Lane said he didn’t know how many of those seven programs would have to be delayed, but indicated that some would have to be.
“But there won’t be any reduction of the programs,” he said. “We’ll just have to delay starting them.”
Lane said the vice presidents of each department would look at their costs, and the university would give them direction on reduction targets to meet. The plan is to have ESU’s budget proposal ready for the regents by Aug. 15.
“Certainly, if we have to reduce by a significantly higher amount of money for next year, it will certainly impair our ability to grow and probably cause us to contract a little bit,” Lane said.
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