The University Senate faces a funding crisis as it convenes for its second regular meeting of the year Wednesday, but members hope a state budget shortfall won’t mean University program cuts.
State revenues could take a more than $290 million plunge, according to an economic forecast last month. The looming budget shortfall has forced Gov. John Kitzhaber to prepare for a special session to balance the budget.
“The state economic forecast is not good,” said Nathan Tublitz, senate president and biology professor. “In fact, it’s bad enough that the governor mandated a 2 percent cut in the general fund.”
The cut means about $16 million normally divvied among public universities could be reallocated to balance the state budget — a move that could further cripple the University, which already believes it is handicapped by dwindling state funds.
“We need to begin acting now to save money and initiate plans for budget reductions that are in line with state priorities,” Kitzhaber said in a statement Friday.
Kitzhaber’s declaration left once-optimistic senate members calling the glass half empty.
“I think the economy is soft, and it’s going south in a hurry,” said Margaret Hallock, administrative officer for the senate and director for the Wayne Morse Center for Law and Politics. “(In June) I hoped the University could make it to the first biennium. Now, I’d be surprised if that would be the case.”
Tublitz said the Senate Budget Committee met Tuesday with University Provost John Moseley in an emergency meeting to discuss how to mitigate the shortfall’s impact on the University. Moseley will answer questions posed by the senate in its Wednesday meeting. Until then, many senators are reluctant to comment on the specifics of the budget shortfall.
Tublitz also said it’s too early to say officially how the school plans to cover its costs.
“It could be done by administrative reorganization and by putting off some expansion projects,” Tublitz said. “And by using some increases in funds from other sources to shore up cuts.”
The budget crisis is a stern first test for Tublitz in his first and only year as senate president. He was elected in May 2001 after four years as a senator representing natural sciences and one year as vice president. His term as president ends in May 2002.
“I stepped forward only because everybody else stepped backward. I didn’t move,” Tublitz quipped. “I had my arm twisted, and it still hurts.”