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Tuesday, March 19, 2024
NEWS  |  CAMPUS

Proposed UF College of Engineering budget will be set aside

UF College of Engineering Dean Cammy Abernathy has agreed to set aside her proposal to deal with budget cuts for the upcoming fiscal year.

UF President Bernie Machen issued a statement to the university community today around 5 p.m. He explained the administration’s efforts to identify budget reductions.

UF will see a total of $38.2 million in spending reductions, according to the email. Of that, the College of Engineering’s portion is about $4 million.

Instead of implementing cuts across the 10 departments, Abernathy developed a plan earlier this month that included a restructuring of the CISE department. Since then, a group of students of faculty have protested the proposal, urging people to “Save CISE.”

In the email, Machen said he thought much of the backlash was based on misunderstanding.

This week, chairmen from the CISE and Electrical and Computer Engineering departments produced plans for a new proposal.

The new proposal will “clarify and enhance degree offerings while preserving the research mission in both computer science and computer engineering, achieve efficiency in teaching and bring faculty workloads in line with other departments of the college,” Machen said.

In the meantime, Abernathy has agreed to set aside her proposal.

The email also included that using existing university assets is “not a viable option,” as it spent about $30 million in reserves to avoid major cuts last year. Necessary facilities maintenance requires reserves as well.

The College of Engineering isn’t the only one experiencing cuts. Machen said other colleges will likely come forward with proposals of their own soon.

Contact Julia Glum at jglum@alligator.org.

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