The University has cut the campus-wide budget this year by 4 percent in response to the global economic downturn.
The cuts are wide ranging and many colleges within the University are feeling the pressure on their budgets.
One college which has taken a particularly large hit is the College of Humanities and Social Sciences, and it was asked by University officials to cut its budget by 1.67 percent. This was particularly challenging since CHASS had a budget deficit heading into the semester.
Matt Enderwick, assistant dean of finance and administration for CHASS, said the college is trying to make the cuts so that they have the least impact on students.
“Ninety-nine percent of [the CHASS] budget is in personnel costs,” Enderwick said. That leaves only 1 percent for all other operating costs.
“We asked for 4 percent across the board [from each department],” Enderwick said.
In order to achieve this goal CHASS has taken several steps to reach their overall goal. This includes not renewing the contracts of adjunct professors, freezing travel, deferring purchases, such as new computers, and even skimping on basic office supplies.
David Zonderman, associate department head of history, said CHASS has “worked very hard not to cut classes and sections.”
For several departments, including history, English, foreign language and literature, this has meant cutting almost everything else. This includes freezing travel, a part of the college’s operating budget.
By not allowing faculty to travel using University money, or making them pay out of pocket for their costs, professors are hard-pressed to attend conferences and conduct research. This in turn affects their professional visibility, which is essential to their own reputation and subsequently N.C. State’s.
“[Conferences are] the way a lot of academic business gets taken care of,” Zonderman said.
Professors attend conferences not only to meet with other members of their field but to talk to publishers about the possibility of publishing research. Without these integral connections, it is harder to advance professionally, according to Zonderman.
Published works and research, which usually add nothing to a professor’s wallet, are essential in advancing his or her name within a field.
Unless the University supports professors in this vital form of professional advancement, their reputation and subsequently that of the University will decrease.
Despite the cuts already being put in place, the end is nowhere in sight.
Charles Leffler, vice chancellor of finance and business, reminds us “that all vice chancellors and deans are considering the fact that there may be additional reversions this year, and because we are talking about annualized reductions, they have a bigger impact the later in the fiscal year they are enacted.”
