UF's Board of Trustees, the university's highest governing body, voted unanimously to approve $42.2 million in budget cuts Tuesday.
But UF Provost Joe Glover said after the meeting that students may not feel the effect on class sizes and offerings until two years from now, when the federal stimulus money being used to cover some of the cuts runs out.
The trustees approved the plan presented to them by UF President Bernie Machen. The same plan was sent to the UF community Friday. The plan includes $30.6 million in specific cuts and $11.6 million in unspecified cuts.
The total cut is about 6 percent of UF's $700 million state-allocated budget, said UF's Chief Financial Officer Matt Fajack, which is smaller than the 10 percent worst-case-scenario cut UF was preparing for.
Four faculty and 49 staff are slated to be laid off under the plan, in addition to about 150 positions that will be eliminated. These positions are vacant, will be vacant due to retirement or are held by temporary employees whose contracts will not be renewed.
Machen will update the Board on the progress of finding ways to cut the remaining $11.6 million from UF's budget by Oct. 31.
Machen also has until June 30 to consider alternate budget cut proposals from administrators. After the meeting, Machen said he expects some changes before the final budget is implemented.
"I think we're gonna have some additional conversations with several units," he said. "I think in IFAS (the Institute of Food and Agricultural Sciences) is where you'll see a significant amount of change," he said.
IFAS, which includes the College of Agricultural and Life Sciences, will take a $7.7 million cut, the largest of any unit at UF. Twenty-three layoffs, in addition to 82 position eliminations, are planned.
Glover said after the meeting that when stimulus money runs out, it's possible fewer students will be able to sign up for classes, class sizes might become bigger or that students will have a smaller selection of classes.
"It remains to be seen in two years how we manage this problem if the state hasn't recovered," he said.
The impact of the cuts on UF's research is harder to determine, he said, but eliminating about 150 positions will inevitably have an effect.
"That's a substantial hit to the university's research," he said.
