Following a $234 million budget shortfall during the 2006 fiscal year, Gov. Tim Kaine asked the University and several other institutes of higher education Thursday to submit proposals to cut spending by up to 7.5 percent, according to Kaine's spokesperson Kevin Hall.
For the University, such a cut for general fund appropriations would equal $11.5 million of the University's budget, said Colette Sheehy, University vice president for management and budget.
Sheehy said that while the proposal is still being developed, she expects it to impact almost all University programs.
"When it comes to an institution, so much of the budget is in people and in the academic schools," Sheehy said. Spending cuts "in the administration can only help out so much."
Sheehy said the University is thinking about how to cut programs by looking at long-term needs.
"Every time we get a reduction to budget, it is a sustainable reaction," Sheehy said. "We get new money when the economy recovers, but that money goes into other things."
Sheehy added that while the University knew of the Commonwealth's budget problems in the spring, the severity of the requested cut was surprising.
All institutes of higher education in Virginia that were to receive their full funding commitment from the Commonwealth were requested to make 7.5 percent cuts; other institutes of higher education and all state agencies were asked to cut spending by up to 5 percent, according to Hall.
Kaine would like universities to look at spending that doesn't have a direct impact on individual students, Hall said.
Kaine plans to review the proposals in the next 30 days before presenting the budget proposal to the state legislature in December.
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