The economics department will have to cut about 30 courses or sections of courses next year because of departing professors.
There will be about 600 fewer spaces for students in the fall semester, with the losses divided between upper-level and introductory courses, Economics Department chairman David Mills said.
"That's an incredible number of people wandering the hallways with course-add forms," Economics Prof. Ronald Michener said.
Economics professors, many of whom stated that their department is understaffed already, expressed frustration with what they see as too little attention from both the state and the University.
"On the ground here, it's reasonably clear that decisions are not being made [within the University administration] with a view toward helping the economics department," Michener said.
The department will lose 11 instructors between this year and next, Mills said.
Economics Prof. Jacob Goeree is leaving to take a job at the University of Amsterdam, and one other full-time faculty member is retiring, Mills added. The other nine losses are from professors taking leave without pay or visiting professors ending their stay.
The departures would leave the department with only 23 faculty, teaching 846 majors.
The economics departments at the University of Michigan and the University of California at Berkeley, two of the University's competitors for the title of America's best public university, have fewer economics students but more than twice as many economics professors, Mills said.
"I think this is the beginning of the end of U.Va's run as the top public university," Economics Prof. James Taylor said.
The economics department was forced to suspend six faculty searches because of the hiring freeze that College Dean Edward L. Ayers imposed in November because of budget uncertainty.
Ayers has made a small exception for the economics department, allowing the department to hire one faculty member before next year.
The department is in the process of finding a candidate, Mills said.
Yet Michener questioned the economics department's ability to attract new professors in coming years.
"Our job candidates are capable of reading the newspaper, and they may not want to book a ticket on the Titanic," Michener said.
Both Taylor and Michener said they would not be surprised if more faculty left in the near future.
Large class size, the condition of Rouss Hall and salary concerns stemming from Gov. Mark R. Warner's decision to cancel the previously scheduled 2 percent raise all have contributed to faculty discontent, Economics Prof. Robert Wright said.
"My morale is low," said Wright, who is leaving the University at the end of the year. Wright has not yet decided on a new job.
On top of the cuts in state funding to the University, Michener cited a perceived lack of commitment on the part of the University to the economics department as a possible cause of faculty departure in the future.
There is a perception among the economics faculty that the department is not being funded fairly in comparison to other departments in the College, Taylor said.
The economics department receives less money per student than most, if not all, other departments in the College, Economics Prof. William Johnson said.
The Commerce School receives about three times as much money per student as the economics department, Johnson added.
Different departments incur different costs in educating students, University Director of Budget Melody Bianchetto said.
The University is under-funded as a whole, she added.
"I'm not sure there's anything the University can do," Taylor said. "The state has tied its hands"
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