After enacting close to $5 million in cuts to Murray State’s budget last year, the University will incur nearly identical cuts this year following the acceptance of Gov. Beshear’s proposed budget.
Murray State will be responsible for finding approximately $2.7 million to balance the 2013-2014 fiscal budget, a combination of fixed costs such as healthcare, retirement and annual pension contributions to the state and newly and soon to be enacted initiatives such as the opening of the new Paducah Regional Campus and the promotion of several adjunct professors to full-time positions.
Beshear’s proposal would cut 2.5 and would add an estimated $1.2 million to these costs and an additional $1.1 million would carry over from last year’s budget.
Jackie Dudley, interim vice president of Finance and Administrative Services and member of a preliminary budget task force, said recommendations to consolidate and reallocate funds was delivered to Interim President Tim Miller for his consideration.
Dudley said much of how many cuts need to be made internally is going to depend on what tuition raises the Council on Postsecondary Education will set for universities this year. A 3 percent increase in tuition, she said, would provide funds for more than 50 percent of needed funds. But she said with no mandate from the CPE at this point, it’s difficult to gauge the exact deficit that will remain to be paid after tuition is set.
“We’re in a balancing act trying to determine what we think the CPE might set as the cap and what may be realistic for our students to pay,” Dudley said. “Institutionally, we’re looking at reallocating at least a minimum of $2 million through cuts, reallocations and internal revenue.”
The CPE will hold meetings in February and April where they will discuss and set their cap on tuition for the state.
Dudley said the budget will be balanced by July 1. She said Miller, the Board of Regents and herself are adamant in their decision to not use one-time money again this year to aid in this process.
Despite the impending cuts on top of the belt-tightening that took place last year, Dudley said this year’s cuts will be made without changing the face of Murray State or the academic quality and services available to students. In terms of Academic Affairs, she said they are looking more at the infrastructure and administration, and students will not see a noticeable difference in the classroom next semester.
Jay Morgan, vice president of Academic Affairs, echoed Dudley’s and the University’s commitment to its student’s learning and said in terms of recommending places to make cuts, he won’t touch the classrooms if not absolutely necessary.
Morgan said trying to hold up to campus academics is Murray State’s core mission and so he will be examining merging and consolidating offices and postponing hires in his department, affecting teaching and learning at the University only minimally.
He said you can’t continue to consecutively cut college and higher learning funding multiple years in a row, otherwise you risk beginning to erode the foundations of Kentucky’s universities and colleges.
Miller and the Board of Regents will likely begin to examine and discuss budget cuts in March before the decision is ultimately finalized by the Board of Regents.
Story by Ben Manhanke, Assistant News Editor