CONTACT: Browning Brooks, (850) 644-4030; <bbrooks@fsu.edu>

June 10, 2008

FSU FACES LIMITED ENROLLMENT, LEAN BUDGET YEAR

TALLAHASSEE, Fla. -- Florida State University is dealing with a $32 million loss in state funding by eliminating more than 250 positions, limiting enrollment by 2,000 students, cutting back student services, and deferring campus maintenance and selected programs, President T.K. Wetherell said today.

The university will officially unveil its budget-slashing plan for 2008-09 when the Board of Trustees meets June 12-13. In an unprecedented move, the BOT also will adopt a 2009-10 budget based on current revenue projections. Such proactive planning has allowed FSU to stabilize its budget and avoid even harsher cuts.

“Recognizing the revenue crisis that was looming in the state, the FSU administration, trustees and Faculty Senate Steering Committee began to look at options a year and a half ago to soften the inevitable financial blow,” Wetherell said.

The trustees held a special board meeting in January 2008 to put contingency plans in place. “They directed the administration to do whatever was necessary to handle budget cuts without surrendering quality,” Wetherell said.

“But something had to give. And what gave was enrollment. The university’s only viable option was to begin to limit enrollment to only the number of students that the state had approved and funded. FSU had to close its doors to a lot of talented students in order to ensure the ones already here would receive the education they deserved.”

Despite careful planning, FSU still faces difficult challenges, Wetherell said. It will open classes in August with:

• A faculty and staff work force facing the prospect of no raises in two years.
• Approximately $32 million less in recurring operating funds than a year ago despite a modest tuition increase.
• At least 2,000 fewer students than typically would have been enrolled: about 1,200 fewer freshmen and 800 fewer transfer students.
• A returning student body that still includes about 600 students for whom the state has provided no state funding.
• More than 200 faculty and staff positions eliminated or not filled as a result of lack of funding.
• The loss of more than 100 new faculty positions that would have been created.
• Implementation of the Pathways of Excellence cluster hiring initiative extended from five to seven years.
• Larger classes.
• Less availability of computer labs.
• Fewer full-time faculty and more teaching assistants, graduate assistants and adjunct faculty doing the teaching.
• A 10-percent reduction in the university’s $25-million utility bill.
• Adjusted hours for the National High Magnetic Field Laboratory at FSU to accomplish a goal of a $500,000 utility savings for that facility.
• Travel restrictions on faculty to scientific and professional conferences as well as staff pursuing professional development programs.
• Services reduced or in some cases privatized, such as reduced mail delivery.
• Reductions in the number of staff training offerings and counselors available through the Employee Assistance Program.
• Buildings cleaned less frequently; grass mowed less often; trash collection curtailed.
• Reductions in new or replacement equipment purchases.

The lack of funding already has cost FSU valued assets -- rising young stars and veteran faculty members who were recruited away. At least 62 have left since August (27 tenured, 35 tenure-earning), many for higher-paying jobs elsewhere. The trustees and the administration are concerned about faculty and staff facing $4/gallon gas and higher grocery bills and recognize the need to take action to hold onto the university’s most talented employees at all levels, Wetherell said. He cited the recent successful recruitment of outstanding new faculty through the Pathways of Excellence initiative as a bright spot on the horizon, but warned that this nationally recognized program cannot carry the entire university.

Retaining talent doesn’t just affect the classroom, Wetherell said. A revenue crisis that reduces jobs, local purchasing and student enrollment, for example, can be expected to have a significant impact on the region’s economy.

“Our economists tell us that jobs directly and indirectly related to FSU total nearly 21 percent of employment in the Tallahassee area,” Wetherell said. “We generate 40,000 jobs locally, 44,000 statewide. Based on student spending, the university budget and visitors’ spending at FSU, our economic impact on the state economy is estimated at $3.3 billion.”

The cuts announced today and the ramifications of the adjustments along with continued revenue shortfall to the university could represent as much as a $100-million loss to the local economy for the 2008-09 academic year, Wetherell said.

“Declining state revenues and underfunding of higher education in Florida have put Florida State in a difficult place, but we saw it coming,” he said.

“FSU has taken aggressive steps to stabilize its budget and turn back serious threats to quality by limiting enrollment. We had no choice. We will protect the integrity of the teaching, research and service mission of the university and continue to enhance our standing as one of the top research and graduate education institutions in the nation.”

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