As UF braces for an estimated budget crunch of about 7 to 8 percent, members of UF's Faculty Senate discussed Thursday measures meant to ensure it has greater input over the cuts.
UF President Bernie Machen requested that the Senate's Budget Council provide guidelines for deciding future cuts after summer meetings. His request came after some faculty expressed frustrations over the summer that they were not given meaningful input in decisions over department mergers and layoffs.
The council presented the Senate with guidelines, or ways to cut costs and bring money to UF, during the meeting.
"To put it quite bluntly, we're cutting," said David Quillen, Budget Council chairman. "That's the reality we have to deal with."
Some of the cost-cutting guidelines include providing incentives for faculty members who obtain outside grants, increasing distance-education courses and employing adjunct professors.
Cuts for college departments were also proposed, but they were only preliminary ideas, Quillen said.
"If we can avoid closing a major unit, that's great, but if we have to do it, we have to do it," he said. "The impact would be horrible."
Quillen said cutting whole departments instead of decreasing the number of a department's professors was necessary and would be less damaging to the overall institutions.
Some professors questioned the council's proposal of eliminating duplicate programs at UF that may exist at other state schools.
UF English professor Scott Nygren questioned the Faculty Senate's vote to upgrade the College of Medicine's division of dermatology to a department, despite budget cuts, but he was assured that little UF money would be used for the upgrade.
An optional 15 percent tuition increase for universities statewide each year, proposed Thursday by Gov. Charlie Crist, may only generate about $11 million to $12 million for UF, said UF Provost Joe Glover. The Budget Council won't know specifics about how much UF will need to cut until state legislation is passed on Crist's proposal, Quillen said.
In spite of the governor's efforts, some in attendance acknowledged that the upcoming budget cuts would be a great challenge.
Dianna Morgan, Board of Trustees chairwoman, said UF must adapt to doing more with fewer resources.
"Crisis is the great change agent in higher education, and it forces us to look inward and make tough decisions," Morgan said.
Frank Bova, Faculty Senate chairman, said Crist's decision marks a significant change in direction that will allow UF to move forward with its uncertain fiscal future.
"We still have a very, very tough time ahead of us this year," Bova said.
