If there's one thing besides national championships that UF should be getting used to by now, it's budget cuts.
On Thursday, exactly a week after UF toppled Oklahoma in the BCS National Championship Game, President Bernie Machen announced to the Faculty Senate that UF will start preparing for massive budget cuts.
Because of a predicted state budget that is $3.4 billion less than this year's, Machen said UF will ask each college and administrative unit to submit budget proposals for the 2009-2010 fiscal year with 10 percent cuts.
Added up, the cuts would entail a university-wide budget that is $72 million to $75 million leaner than the 2008-2009 budget.
The budget cut for 2008-2009 was $47 million.
Machen said the 10 percent budget cut he is asking for is only an estimate suggested by lawmakers.
He said this is a worst-case scenario but noted other state universities are preparing for the same sized cut.
Ultimately, UF won't know exactly how much is being cut from the 2009-2010 budget until the Florida Legislature decides the state budget during the spring session, which runs from March 1 to May 1.
However, due to criticism that UF did not give faculty enough time to discuss the last round of cuts, Machen said he wants to start the discussion earlier this time.
Instead of starting in March, UF will start this week and hopes to make the final proposals public by mid-to-late March.
At that point, the UF community will have 30 to 45 days to discuss the proposed cuts before final recommendations will be made by administrators to UF's Board of Trustees, which will cast the final vote.
Unlike last time, Machen said cuts will be more strategic, instead of even across-the-board cuts.
Machen also said this round of cuts will likely be more difficult. While most of the positions that were eliminated last time were already vacant, there are fewer vacant positions now, he said, which might translate to more employees being laid off.
Over 400 positions were eliminated, but only eight faculty and 65 staff members were laid off after the last round of cuts, said Interim Vice President for UF's Human Resource Services Paula Fussell.
On the other hand, Machen delivered some good news during the meeting when he said UF is no longer expecting a mid-year budget cut from lawmakers, who finished their special session Wednesday without making further cuts to universities.
Also, if lawmakers pass Gov. Charlie Crist's differential tuition plan this year, it could offset about $24 million of the cuts.
Crist's plan would allow state universities to raise tuition by 15 percent a year until they reach the national average.
UF has the ability to raise tuition by that much, but it only applies to students who enroll in Fall of 2008 or later.
Regardless of whether Crist's proposal passes, UF will probably hike tuition the full 15 percent next academic year, Machen said.
To demonstrate his desire for increased transparency this time, Machen sent an e-mail Thursday afternoon to UF students, faculty and staff explaining the situation.
But not everyone is smitten with the idea of increased transparency. James Klausner, a UF professor, said he thinks it might be a better idea to have budget discussions within each college before opening the process to the entire university. He said he's afraid that colleges will start arguing over who is more important to the university, which will tarnish relationships.
"I'm afraid that rather than having a positive discussion it could degenerate into an intellectual brawl," he said.
