This past week, staff at the IHL (college board) distributed spreadsheets of projected budgets for the eight universities comprising the system. Shockingly, the spreadsheet shows USM with a projected budget of just $156 million (and change) for the fiscal year 2011-2012 - a whopping contraction in the neighborhood of $25 million from where we started out the current 2009-2010 year.
Even assuming that the recent painful process of APG-driven budget reduction nets $10 million+ for the next fiscal year, the IHL projection suggests that we still have another $14 million+ to go for the year following.
Should there be even a slight shred of doubt in anyone's mind, let's be clear - cuts of this magnitude are massive, completely overwhelming the usual euphemisms of "trimming," "belt-tightening," etc. It's hard even to imagine what a USM that is $25 million "lighter" will look like.
We're past pain. Get ready for trauma.