Universities and college across the country are facing funding cuts due to the present economic condition. In the recent months, various universities have been holding meetings and discussion forums to figure out how to deal with these cuts. Times are hard and the one thing that is certain is that there are going to be some very hard decisions that would have to be made.
In December 2008, University of Wisconsin Madison Chancellor Carolyn Martin held several campus forums to allow faculty, students and staff to express their ideas on how to deal with funding cuts.
Dealing With Funding Cuts
Funding cuts mean that there are going to be layoffs, hikes in the tuition fee, discontinuing certain study programs and a decrease in the funding of certain services. In fact, it was reported in June 2008 that the University of Kentucky’s board of trustees had laid off 188 staff and frozen the pay of the remaining faculty and staff. Moreover, the tuition fee has been increased by 9 percent.
In response to the upcoming funding cuts, the California State University and University of California systems are planning to increase the tuition fee by upto 10 percent and reduce student enrollment by 10,000 for 2009. Stanford University has responded by reducing research funding and financial aid and eliminating some jobs.
Everyone Is Concerned
Students are concerned that the rise in tuition fee would make education unaffordable to the median and low income group. This would obviously lead to some students dropping out of colleges. And surely this is not good in the long term scenario. Cutting down on research funding and eliminating study programs is also not good in the long term.
However, people are still optimistic. Universities are working to ensure that the funding cuts have a minimum impact on the students and faculty. People are ready for some hard decisions and everyone is interested in ensuring the long-term health of the higher education system. Furthermore, the Obama administration has stressed that it will work to keep funding at the same level.
Hard times call for innovation. People have to figure out new ways of doing things. There is going to be lot of strategizing and hopefully at the end the system will emerge stronger. At least that is what the goal should be.