Chancellor Randy Woodson announced the official budget reduction plan for the University to the UNC General Administration amid legislature-mandated budget cuts of 15.1 percent.

This funding deficiency equates to difficult changes affecting University students, faculty, and staff.

“It’s not an overstatement to say that this is the most difficult budget challenge the state of North Carolina and the University have faced since the Great Depression,” Woodson said in a public message.

Despite these major cuts, the University has acted early to minimize the impact of the budget cuts through effective planning.

“We are very fortunate to have had such strong leadership at N.C . State. As a result of the chancellor’s planning, the University was able to offset some of the budget reduction by holding back some funds ahead of the actual legislated reduction,” Nate DeGraff , Associate Director of Communications for the College of Engineering, said.

According to Dr. Johnny Wynne , dean of the College of Agriculture and Life Sciences, “Of the 16 percent reduction allocated to N.C . State by the Board of Governors, the provost only allocated a 7 percent budget cut to the academic budget of the colleges.”

The colleges within the University have taken meticulous approaches to help offset budget cuts and minimize the impact on students and the quality of education.

“The leadership in each college and unit has made decisions on where to cut back with the ultimate goal of protecting the academic programs and services to students to the extent possible,” DeGraff said.

Dr. Jeffrey Braden, dean of the College of Humanities and Social Sciences, explained that 98 percent of CHASS’s expenses are people, rather than utilities or equipment, and 90 percent of those people are faculty. He stated that, where legally possible, non-appropriated funds, such as grants, alumni donations, and scholarships, are used to cover expenses, reducing the spending of limited state-appropriated funds.

The College of Physical and Mathematical Sciences has taken similar action.

“Like a lot of other areas in the University, we have consolidated some services so that they could be carried out with fewer people,” Dr. Dan Solomon, dean of PAMS , said.

The College of Natural Resources has also shifted staff and faculty responsibilities, and will rely on reserve funds to help offset deficits.

“We’ve adjusted to [other aspects of our budget] in the same way we’ve adjusted to the state budget cuts – by eliminating open positions, cutting some staff back to [three-quarters of the] time, and reducing operating expenses, which means reduced services to students and researchers. We do have some reserves in our Foundation, and we are judiciously using those to plug some holes, particularly when it comes to student support, such as scholarships, support for Study Abroad courses, TAs , etc,” Dr. Robert Brown, the dean for the College of Natural Resources, said.

The College of Veterinary Medicine strives to keep as many positions as possible.

“We did eliminate several support staff positions we would usually have refilled, including support staff in the dean’s office and department offices. In some cases we have moved staff from one office to another where there was a more critical need.  Loss of staff positions means that faculty members have to do some of the tasks that used to be done by staff,” Dr. David Bristol, dean of the College of Veterinary Medicine, said.

Some jobs were inevitably lost due to budget cuts. However, most of these losses were due to voluntary vacancies, such as retirement and reductions in financial support, and not termination.

“We did not fire anybody.  We did lose state support for 6.29 faculty positions, 0.85 non-faculty EPA professional positions, and 20.26 staff positions.  Some of the positions were vacant and were eliminated.  Others were filled and were moved to other sources of revenue,” Bristol said.

According to Wynne , the College of Agricultural and Life Sciences faces unique challenges.

“The budget reductions in the College of Agriculture and Life Sciences are more complicated than in most other colleges since there are three appropriated budget lines instead of the normal one,” Wynne said.

Woodson acknowledges the university’s cooperation and assistance during this difficult economic situation.

“I appreciate the way everyone on campus has embraced the strategic plan, organizational realignment and budget conversations. They have been interactive processes built on the contributions of hundreds of students, faculty and staff who were directly and indirectly involved. ” Woodson said.