The University Budget Advisory Committee met Wednesday to discuss ways to deal with a $9 million reduction of the University’s budget and potential reductions later on.

Charles Leffler, vice chancellor for finance and business, said despite this and any future budget cuts, the University is also looking to stand by its approved growth plan, with 40,000 students at N.C. State by 2017.

If the University wants to get more out of less money and continue to grow, it needs to focus on reducing administrative costs. Don’t cut salaries for researchers and instructors. Don’t cut programs that help students get more personal instruction in large classes, like tutoring or Supplemental Instruction (SI).

Cut the bureaucratic red tape that isolates administrators from realizing the consequences of cutting research or instructional programs.

The University is an engine for research that graduates students and gives them a practical education for today’s economy. Cutting back on programs that help students get the best education possible and drive technological breakthroughs is a betrayal of that mission.

Leffler said the Budget Advisory Committee talked about ways to focus and fund core competencies and make operating the University as efficient as possible while giving all potential students access to a quality education.

Here’s what the University is competent at: providing an affordable, quality education for students and sponsoring research for innovative technologies. Programs like SI or the various tutorial centers ensure that students can deal with growing class sizes and get a good, practical education.

That’s what the University cannot afford to cut.

As part of this mission, the University provides a number of services that ensure students and researchers want to stay here – on-campus dining, transportation and utilities to keep the campus running. The University cannot afford to underfund these programs either.

Leffler said the University is trying to be as adaptive as possible – as an institution with lots of intelligent people, it can find smart, creative solutions to budget cuts.

Absolutely – the intelligent, efficient decision would be to cut funding to administrative positions and costs. It would also fund programs that supplement our core competencies – University research grants, SI and tutoring.

Let’s not waste money on excess administration and bureaucracy. It only makes the University less efficient.