President John T. Casteen III gave his annual State of the University Address yesterday in Old Cabell Hall before a crowd of students, faculty and administrators. Casteen addressed a wide range of issues that have made news in recent months, but focused in particular on how the University will cope with the recently passed state budget cuts.
"The last several months have been perplexing and sometimes discouraging times for all of us" because of the budget cuts, Casteen said.
Although Casteen acknowledged that the University would feel the effects of the budget cut in areas ranging from larger class sizes to decreasing financial support for graduate students, his overall message was one of confidence.
"We came out of the last [round of budget cuts in 1990] in better condition than we went in, so we will do the same with this one," Casteen said.
Casteen has given a State of the University speech each year for the past several years, said University Spokeswoman Louise Dudley. The speech is open to the public.
"It's largely so that he can talk about the achievements of the University over the last year ... and so that he can speak to faculty members with whom he does not normally meet," Dudley said.
The University is facing a $25 million drop in state funding for next school year, and a $33 million cut for the 2003-2004 year. The College will be hardest hit by the cuts since it is less self-sufficient than the other schools, Casteen said.
The University rose in rankings of top universities in the 1990s, he said, even though most of the funding cut in 1990 was never restored.
As it did after the budget cuts 10 years ago, the University will refrain from laying off any employees, he added.
However, the ranks of the faculty will shrink, because the University will not fill vacant faculty positions or replace departing visiting faculty members. The University also will phase out 20 teaching assistant and 35 non-instructive positions.
Casteen praised the University's ability to operate under tight financial circumstances.
"The University has the lowest expenditure per student anywhere in the top echelon of universities," he said.
Private giving to the University has increased significantly since 1999, Casteen said.
However, "philanthropic giving is not a panacea," he said, since all but 3 percent of donations to the University last year came with conditions for the use of the money.
Casteen announced that the administration tentatively hopes to be able to provide a 2.5 percent bonus for employees of the Medical Center in 2002-2003 to match those that the state has provided for University faculty and "classified employees."
Casteen also addressed the question of "living wages" for contracted employees of the University.
The University legally may not be able to require its contractors to pay all their employees a wage above the legal minimum wage, Casteen said. Therefore, living wage proponents must obtain an interpretation of state law from the attorney general, a change to the law from the General Assembly or direct agreements with University contractors.
Casteen did not explicitly express support for paying a living wage. However, he did advise living wage proponents to be patient.
"Impatience is sometimes the enemy of results," he said.
Casteen acknowledged that graduate students at the University are under-funded.
"Graduate funding is a challenge," he said. "We've made some progress ... but we have a long way to go."
The University is trying to address the problem of graduate student support through private funding and through awarding funding more efficiently, he said.
Casteen outlined several goals for the University in coming years.
The University should continue to develop interdisciplinary programs and should become more international, especially in light of the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, he said.
Casteen said the University probably will continue to grow in coming years at a rate at least equal to that of the past few years, about 100 extra students per year. He criticized the General Assembly for not laying out a long-term plan for growth for the University.
Casteen also addressed drinking on college campuses.
He cited a recently released study by the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism showing that annually in the United States 1,400 college students die and another 70,000 report being sexually assaulted in alcohol-related incidents.
"Our own students do not escape these trends," Casteen said.
However, University students report fewer alcohol-related problems than the national average, he said. He cited statistics that show the number of drinks University students consume in an average week declined from 6.6 last year to 3.6 this year.
Casteen said he hoped to reach a decision on whether the University will invest in the Mount Graham telescope in Arizona, a move that is shrouded in controversy because of its location on sacred Apache land. He said he would like to be able to make an announcement before the end of the school year, but he did not know if that would be possible.
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