I've spent the last few hours musing over a variety of budget cut scenarios for the college and its constituent units. None is easy or elegant. Each in fact is painful and bears a unique signature of ugly consequences, so that deciding what do is rather like choosing which fingers and toes to cut off, in what order of sacrifice. Given the general "resource deprived" nature of college operations (which is surely not to suggest that any of our sibling colleges are in significantly better shape), how could it be otherwise?
Though to my knowledge, the university has yet to receive any "official" figures for our next fiscal year (beginning July 1), we anticipate an overall 10% cut to our state allocation, which translates to a 5% reduction of total budget. Even with preferential treatment of academic affairs, we expect to shoulder a 4% reduction. On the face of it, such a "minimal" cut might appear readily manageable (after all, 96% of funding remains, does it not?). But in real dollars, a 4% cut means that CoH will have $450,000 less with which to operate (and that's just looking at Hattiesburg), when virtually the entire budget is tied up in filled position lines and departmental operating budgets that are already grossly inadequate.
"Cut the fat." "Tighten your belt." "Do a little more with a little less." These popular nostrums for weathering hard times may carry weight in contexts of relative bounty, historical resource expansion, and discretionary surplus. Sad to say, that's not us, not our situation. I fear that our bones are already showing, there are no notches left in our belt, and "more with less" has been our unrewarded SOP for more than a decade.
Will we survive? Of course. Will we come through in a way that avoids reducing revenue-generating enrollment, jeopardizing accredited program status, and damaging the research enterprise? That's certainly our goal, and I'm committed to doing everything possible to reach it.
Just be kind, and don't ask us to wiggle our fingers and toes in public.