As state legislators ponder the next round of budget cuts, schools around Virginia still are trying to cope with last year's reductions. George Mason University was forced to raise in-state tuition by 16 percent this year, due to a $15 million cut in its state funding. The school might have to consider staff and faculty layoffs depending on the severity of future cuts.
"We are the most underfunded doctoral institution," said Daniel Walsch, GMU director of media relations. The state "didn't give us a break."
A total of 209 positions have been lost at Virginia Tech after a $25 million budget cut, according to Jean Elliott, the school's director of college and media relations. Of those positions, 88 were teaching and research faculty positions and 55 were administrative positions.
The College of William & Mary lost $6.9 million this year to budget slashes.
Bill Walker, the school's associate vice president for public affairs, said this equates to losing a total of $29.5 million over the last 30 months.
Twelve staff members have been laid off at Willam & Mary, and searches for 13 faculty members have been suspended, leading the school's administrators to fear the loss of its prized 12:1 student- faculty ratio.
Walker said the cuts have hit his school very hard, as its $360 million endowment cannot compare with the University's $1.8 billion for "cushioning Richmond's fiscal whims."
"We don't have the endowment U.Va. enjoys," Walker said. "We're envious."
As at the University and William & Mary, James Madison University has imposed an indefinite freeze on hiring, travel and equipment purchases. Although course offerings have not been drastically reduced, the school's director of university communications, Fred Hilton, said the situation is deceiving.
"We've had problems with a deficit of faculty for years, and this situation worsened it," Hilton said.
Budget cuts to state colleges and universities enacted last spring ranged from $25 million at the University to $4.7 million at JMU. Now, schools are facing additional reductions that could range from 7 to 15 percent.
When it enacted the last round of cuts, the General Assembly considered last December's report by the State Council on Higher Education in Virginia that revealed the Commonwealth's system of higher education is under funded by more than $200 million annually.
Last spring, "the General Assembly looked at where each institution stood relative to state funding guidelines for colleges," said Peter Blake, Virginia's deputy secretary of education.
The University, in having 94 percent of its needs met as of last spring, absorbed a larger cut than JMU, which had only 80 percent of its needs.
Blake said he believes this methodology will stand during the upcoming round of cuts.
"The Assembly stated its intent to use funding guidelines," Blake said. "I am confident [Gov. Mark R. Warner] will be looking at that" in determining future cuts.
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