Mahlon Joseph Bourgeois
July 7, 2009
Ronnie Jerome Labit
July 9, 2009
Despite losing over 12 percent of its state funding for next year, Nicholls State University President Dr. Stephen T. Hulbert is “cautiously optimistic” about the future.
Last week, the Louisiana Board of Regents announced the school would take a nearly $3 million cut to its operating budget. The move was part of an overall $36.9 million reduction in state funding to the eight-school University of Louisiana System.
It is only almost half the reduction expected because legislators tapped $86 million from the state’s Rainy Day Fund in the recently ended session.
“We are appreciative of the action by the Legislature and Gov. (Bobby) Jindal for reducing the cut from $5.3 million to just short of $3 million,” Hulbert said. “We’re going to be impacted, but you have to have a positive attitude. You have to say this university is going to be stronger.”
Combined with the $1.5 million cut made in January, the university is losing over $4.4 million or 12.3 percent of its state funding.
Money allocated for Nicholls’ 2009-10 budget will be $31.5 million. The self-generated portion of the budget (fees and tuition) is not known yet.
Nicholls will also have to pay for a series of mandated cost increases, such as benefits, health insurance and insurance to protect the physical campus, for which the state used to allocate money.
Hulbert said unfunded mandate costs have gone up significantly and projected an increase between $1.3 and $1.5 million for next year.
Nicholls is implementing a 5 percent tuition increase, about $90 for a full-time student, which will generate about $1.1 million annually depending on enrollment numbers, said Lawrence Howell, Nicholls’ associate provost for academic affairs.
Hulbert indicated enrollment is “strong and increasing” based on orientation attendance and students asking for residence hall assignments.
“The factor we can’t quite measure is the returning students who are most affected by the program reductions,” Hulbert said. “Are they going to transfer? Are they going to drop out? Will they go from full-time to part-time students? We won’t know that until September.”
Nicholls will keep in place much of the Budget Reduction Plan announced in May, which included eliminating 80 faculty and staff positions, a dozen academic programs and reductions in a dozen others.
Twenty tenured and tenure-track faculty were also given one year notices that their positions would be terminated. Students in the eliminated programs have one year to complete required courses toward their degree.
“We have focused on the core academic program. We are going to deliver the quality programs for which we are known,” Hulbert said. “We’re going to focus on those academic initiatives for which we have been very successful and we’re going to do better at them.”
The lone change to the Budget Reduction Plan will be no furloughs because Nicholls was the only school in the UL System that did not provide pay increases for its employees last year.
“If we did a furlough, it would be against salaries established in 2007-08,” Hulbert explained. “I don’t think it’s fair for my employees to take that hit. I don’t think that’s how you build a team or serve the students.”
The budget cuts will not affect ongoing construction projects throughout the Nicholls campus. Separately appropriated funding for deferred maintenance and capital outlays in previous years paid for those projects.
“While we’re tightening our belts in many places, you’re going to see us spending money. We have almost $50 million in deferred maintenance on this campus, and we just received $4 million in recently approved funds for that major need.”
The money will be used to change doors to improve access for the impaired, install an elevator in Talbot Hall, HVAC in Gouaux Hall and other buildings and upgrade electrical service.
University administrators admitted faculty morale has been low since the state began ordering budget cuts eight months ago. However, keeping the line of communication open between the parties has helped ease the process.
“I think that the vast majority of employees understand the situation,” Howell said. “They’re going to pull up their bootstraps and work with less. The person next to them might not be there, but they’re picking up the load. They’re doing it willingly and with the proper attitude. That’s a credit to the people we have working for this institution.”
The state is projecting even worse economic data for future budgets, and it cannot dip into the Rainy Day Fund next year. Hulbert fears 2009 could just be the beginning of a long string of money troubles for higher education in Louisiana.
“I’m definitely worried. Attempts were made to provide higher education a three-year cushion in order to adjust. This change has given us a one year reprieve, but this is one time monies,” he said. “Come next legislative session, we are back in the same position of forecasting major budget reductions unless additional money is found or tuition and fees go up appropriately.”
Nicholls State nursing students, like the rest of the student body, will feel the recent impact of the 12 percent budget cuts in student services and academic programs. * Photo by KEYON K. JEFF
