Inside Iowa State: Iowa State University

INSIDE IOWA STATE
June 14, 2002

ISU leaders try to carve budget that is 13 percent leaner

by Anne Krapfl
Iowa State will begin the new fiscal year with an operating budget from the state that is 13 percent smaller than its operating budget on July 1, 2001. University leaders still are wrestling with how to achieve all the cuts in a budget that begins in just a few weeks. President Gregory Geoffroy said employee furloughs will not be part of Iowa State's budget-cutting plan.

The cuts total $34.4 million and are the result of the combined losses in mid-year deappropriations and legislative actions in this year's regular and special sessions. Recommendations made by Iowa State's Task Force on Strategic Effectiveness and Budget Priorities and accepted by Geoffroy this spring will cover almost $15.4 million of the necessary cuts.

That leaves $19.0 million in cuts. Geoffroy said another $14.9 million of new tuition revenues, which university leaders had hoped to use for new faculty positions, will instead cover the general university's portion of that shortfall, leaving about $4.1 million to be absorbed by seven other units: Agriculture Experiment Station, Cooperative Extension Service, IPRT, Small Business Development Center, ISU Research Park, Leopold Center and Livestock Disease Research.

Several of these units took a second hit during the Legislative special session, losing other pieces of their state funding through non-higher education (economic development, environmental) revenue streams. Directors of those units still are identifying strategies for meeting their cuts.

In addition to the repercussions announced this spring as part of the task force's recommendations, the further cuts mean new tuition revenues won't be used to build faculty numbers, as originally intended. It also leaves an ISU building repair fund that has shrunk to $1.1 million -- and isn't likely to be restored soon -- for a campus valued in excess of $1.1 billion.