Budget Crunch at UW

[MrTitleist]

From the Northern Wyoming Daily News:

Budget crunch will change UW

LARAMIE (AP) — Likely budget cuts in state funding is forcing the University of Wyoming to looking at focusing more on core programs and raising tuition.

“We are not going to look the same coming out (of the recession) as we do going in,” UW President Tom Buchanan told UW trustees Thursday.

“We are operating on a budget that was built during very flush times.”

UW needs to prepare to cut up to $18.3 million from “the heart of our operations,” Buchanan said.

“We will bring forward tuition increases,” Buchanan said, adding that cannot happen immediately. But they will be considered in coming years.

“There are some parts of the university that are more important than other parts of the university,” Buchanan said.

He said UW will have to concentrate more on the areas where it excels, offers unique programs or provides the educated work force for economic activities important to Wyoming, such as energy.

Some functions UW provides outside of those core areas will be eliminated and “some people are likely to lose their jobs,” he said.

Because of declining revenue, Gov. Dave Freudenthal has asked state agencies to make recommendations for reducing their budgets for the fiscal year beginning July 1 by about 10 percent.

The university was excluded but voluntarily is trying to reduce its draw on the general fund.

Buchanan said the amount of forthcoming state budget cuts isn’t known right now.

Chris Boswell, the governor’s chief of staff, said some people say the state should dip into savings to prevent reducing programs. But a significant portion of those savings may be necessary in 2011 and 2012 “just to keep things from getting worse,” he said.