p. The state is asking the College to cut 7.5 percent of its state funding allocation in order to help make up an estimated $641 million state budget deficit, the Associated Press reported Friday. Virginia Tech and the University of Virginia are also facing 7.5 percent cuts. The College, Virginia Tech and U.Va. are the three state schools with the most independence from Virginia.
p. Almost all other colleges and state agencies are being asked to trim 5 percent from their budgets.
p. In a speech Aug. 20, Gov. Tim Kaine announced that slow economic growth in the 2007 fiscal year led to revenues $234 million short of what was anticipated. Revised forecasts for the 2008 fiscal year indicate that revenues will be $407 million less than expected. This leads to the predicted revenue deficit of $641 million.
p. Kaine blamed the slow revenue growth on the struggling housing market. He reported that tax revenues are down 16.1 percent from last year and revenues for corporate, individual and sales tax collections were 1.2 percent less than predicted.
p. “As we look ahead to budget for 2008 to 2010, we will need to examine programs to see if there [are] any that should be changed or discontinued,” he said. “We will need to look at new ways of doing business that are more efficient and we will need to carefully prioritize how we use the funds we have available to us.”
According to University Relations archives, when Kaine spoke at Charter Day in 2006, he told the College that Virginia should be doing more to fund higher education. “The simple question for the next four years is — can we do better? Of course we can,” Kaine said. “But, there is much more room to improve. During my term of office, we will do better.”
p. In an e-mail to the Student Assembly listserv yesterday, SA President Zach Pilchen ’09 told senators that he met with the Faculty University Priorities Committee (FUPC) and wanted to discuss student perspectives on the cuts at the senate meeting tonight.
p. According to the e-mail, the FUPC will meet again Wednesday to further discuss the cuts.
p. The College, along with U.Va. and Tech, must submit a plan for how the school plans to respond to the cuts to the state by Sept. 10.
p. The Flat Hat will continue to cover how the College handles the budget cuts in the coming weeks.