UW deans, vice presidents, vice provosts and the director of libraries submitted plans in November for $19 million in budget reductions at the Seattle campus. On Oct. 4, Acting Provost David Thorud called for the cuts, which will be effective next July. Across UW departments, the cuts range from 1.5 percent to almost 20 percent and average 3 percent.
The reduction includes $12 million, or 2.4 percent, mandated by the 1994 legislature and $7 million to create a campus-wide reallocation reserve. The $12 million in cuts comes on top of recent reductions in state funding that total $53 million. That brings the cumulative total reduction on the Seattle campus to about $65 million, or 10 percent, over the past three years.
The specifics on where the cuts will be taken were left to deans and other unit heads. Officials did not know the exact number of jobs to be cut but said it will likely be from 100 to 200. The University is not declaring a financial emergency. Tenured positions will be protected.
The largest cut comes in the Graduate School, which is taking a 19.8 percent reduction. Most of that—16.8 percent—may come from a recommendation to eliminate the Institute for Environmental Studies. Procedures for program elimination will follow guidelines established in the University Handbook.
The College of Arts and Sciences will take a 3.5 percent cut. The provost said past efforts to insulate arts and sciences, which educates most undergraduates, from budget reductions are no longer possible.
The specifics on how the $7 million reallocation fund will be used were not announced. It will, however, give the UW more flexibility in addressing future needs in high priority areas, officials said.
“Past reductions have taken a toll on all University programs and services,” Thorud wrote in a letter to the deans. “Budget hearings with deans, vice presidents and others last spring and again this summer brought home a very clear message: Budget cuts are having significant impacts on the quality of programs and services, faculty and staff morale, and efforts to innovate and move on to new opportunities.
“The financial climate resulting from the passage of the Initiative 601 state spending limit, and ‘mandatory’ spending increases for public schools, corrections and other programs, suggest continued budgetary problems for the future.
“Clearly the University will need to adopt new strategies,” Thorud wrote.