Governor Pence Cuts Budgets Due To Low State Revenues

The news came as a surprise to many state officials, including those at Indiana University who are being ordered to trim their budget by 2 percent. IU Associate Vice President Mark Land says that amounts to a $10 million cut. “The budget has been set which is one of the things that makes this really challenging and quite frankly a little bit disappointing, because we put together a budget that included the lowest tuition increase in more than 40 years based on the appropriation that was passed by the legislature.”http://indianapublicmedia.org/news/governor-pence-cuts-budgets-due-state-revenues-60025/

Lake Tahoe Community College eyes budget reductions - Griffin Rogers, Tahoe Daily Tribune

Lake Tahoe Community College is considering a number of budget reductions for the current fiscal year, as projected enrollment has dropped from 1,750 full-time equivalent students to 1,640. The college, which operates under a total budget of about $21 million, needs to cut about $500,000 to remain fiscally prudent, President Kindred Murillo said. Therefore, officials are projecting about 13 percent of classes being canceled as a result of low enrollment in the winter and spring sessions.

http://www.tahoedailytribune.com/news/9190051-113/college-murillo-budget-community

Due to budget restructuring, Temple cuts seven varsity sports - NCAA

Temple announced Friday that it will reduce the number of its intercollegiate athletic programs by seven, effective July 1, 2014. The action will mean a better and more sustainable experience for its remaining student-athletes and bring Temple into line with most other schools in the American Athletic Conference. Affected by the action are baseball, men’s crew, men's gymnastics, men's outdoor track & field and men's indoor track & field; as well as two women’s sports: softball and rowing. The action brings Temple's total from 24 to 17 varsity sports.

Slippery Rock President Norton expects more cuts next year - Rebecca Dietrich, the Rocket

Slippery Rock University President Cheryl J. Norton discussed the declining enrollment trend present at the university at the town meeting Thursday afternoon. Down 9 percent this year, Norton forecasts enrollment to be a major a challenge for the budget in years to come. “We are in a period of declining enrollment. We haven’t had as low of an enrollment at this institution since 2008 and that’s the challenge that we’re really dealing with,” Norton said. President Cheryl J. Norton broke the news to the public during the town hall meeting in the ballroom of the Robert M. Smith Student Center that the university should expect cuts present in the 2014-2015 fiscal budget. “I have to tell you in all honesty we know that to address this size gap, we will have reductions in workforce, we will have to cut operation budgets, but we also will try to increase revenue.”

http://www.theonlinerocket.com/news/2013/12/05/norton-expects-more-cuts-next-year/

Universities in Pennsylvania cutting programs and faculty: Higher Education Roundup - Karen Farkas, The Plain Dealer

As officials at Ohio’s public universities scrutinize their budgets in the wake of ongoing enrollment challenges and state funding issues, their counterparts in Pennsylvania are facing serious problems. In the last few years, the state’s 14-university system has shed 5 percent of its permanent workforce and discontinued or frozen new enrollment to 198 academic programs, according to Inside Higher Ed. But that wasn’t enough to shore up their budgets. Now, universities in the Pennsylvania State System of Higher Education are looking to end programs, lay off dozens of full-time faculty members, and cut ties with numerous adjuncts and more staffers.

http://www.cleveland.com/metro/index.ssf/2013/12/universities_in_pennsylvania_c.html

3 Ideas to Make College (Mostly) Free - SOPHIE QUINTON, the Atlantic

Oregon's legislature is kicking around concepts that would make higher education cheaper for the state's increasingly diverse student population. Oregon wants 80 percent of its adults to hold a college degree or postsecondary certificate by 2025. To meet that goal, lawmakers are focused on making college more affordable—whether that means increasing funding after years of budget cuts or rethinking tuition payments altogether. Currently, about a third of students in the Beaver State don't graduate from high school on time—or at all—and just 61 percent of graduates immediately head to college. A third of Oregon students are nonwhite, and half of students are low-income. State and local funding for higher education dropped by 32 percent between 2007 and 2012 even as enrollment jumped by 36.2 percent, according to the State Higher Education Executive Officers Association. Unsurprisingly, Oregon students are paying 18 percent more in tuition and fees than the national average, and students' debt loads are soaring. Here are three ideas kicking around the state Legislature that would make college free, or much cheaper, for Oregon's increasingly diverse student population.
http://www.theatlantic.com/education/archive/2013/12/3-ideas-to-make-college-mostly-free/281952/

Budget Cuts Cause Some Colleges to Cut Key Academic Programs - City Town Info

Slate reports that Minnesota State University Moorhead and the University of the District of Columbia may soon cut notable departments -- like English, physics and history -- in an effort to balance their budgets in the face of marginalized state funding. Columnist Rebecca Schuman, an adjunct professor at the University of Missouri-St. Louis, suggested the trend indicates that higher education's business model is "backward," and that education, "the very raison d'être for a university" also seems the most disposable. Another point of contention for Schuman: the possible prioritization of professors' and administrators' salaries over students' educations. University President Edna Mora Szymanski suggested that years of declining enrollments have contributed to the problem, and that programs with the largest enrollment drops would be more vulnerable than popular ones.

http://www.citytowninfo.com/career-and-education-news/articles/budget-cuts-cause-some-colleges-to-cut-key-academic-programs-13120401

Colorado continues to face long-term budget challenges - CSU, the Coloradoan

“Colorado has one of the most complex state budgets in the nation, not by virtue of the dollar figures – other states are much bigger – but due to the many competing financial caps and spending requirements that have been added to the state constitution over the years,” said Charles Brown, director of the Colorado Futures Center at CSU. “For state lawmakers, meeting the long-term needs of Colorado citizens under this web of incongruent constitutional rules is a delicate balance that can easily be upset by outside factors or the unanticipated impacts of their own actions. The 2013 Colorado Sustainability Study demonstrates this tension very well, with an extended economic forecast that contains a better-than-expected outlook clouded by economic challenges of our own Legislature’s making.”

http://www.coloradoan.com/article/20131204/CSU03/131204002/COLORADO-CONTINUES-FACE-LONG-TERM-BUDGET-CHALLENGES?nclick_check=1

University libraries costs increase - Josh Logue, Diamondback

The price of academic texts is on the rise, but students aren’t the only ones struggling to keep up: University libraries officials said the cost of academic journal subscriptions has left them in a financial tight spot. The library’s total collections budget, almost $12 million, has stayed essentially flat for a decade, while the cost of journal and database subscriptions has increased by about 6.5 percent a year, well above the average inflation rate of about 2.4 percent. Since 2011, a $100 student fee has helped cover some of the costs, but library spokesman Eric Bartheld said it is becoming clear that the fee is not a sustainable solution. The publishing world has undergone significant change in the past few decades. Formerly independent and cheap subscriptions are now managed by a handful of publishers, driving up costs. And libraries across the nation have fallen out of favor with the rise of the Internet, resulting in less government support

http://www.diamondbackonline.com/news/campus/article_aa592d7c-571b-11e3-8bf8-0019bb30f31a.html