2008 Woodie Awards
Carothers tells Student Senate state support declining rapidly
Justin Oswald
Issue date: 10/18/07 Section: News
- Page 1 of 2 next >
|
Carothers told the Student Senate yesterday that if current state contributions to the university followed a straight line trend that "we go to zero in 2024."
"Something will happen that will change that, but we need to take more control over what's happening to us, rather than be at the whim of the state's Legislature office," Carothers said.
The state currently contributes about $74 million - 14 percent - of the university's roughly $560 million budget, Carothers said. Since fiscal year 1999 to fiscal year 2008 the state appropriation, when adjusted for inflation, has declined 14 percent.
As state aid diminishes, Carothers sees the university slowly moving away from the state's financial control and beginning to reinvent itself. The university is already on the path of major change, Carothers said. It has launched a capital campaign to seek private money outside of state support, sought additional partnerships with private corporations and steadily increased tuition.
He added all along it has sought increasing independence from the state, and that philosophy didn't end yesterday as he denounced Carcieri's plan to eliminate 1,000 state jobs in a bid to close the state's $200 million budget gap. The lay offs are expected to save the state $100 million.
"There is not a need to shrink the workforce, there is a need to grow," Carothers said after his talk. "It is irresponsible to cut jobs."
The governor's office said that URI would not be directly affected by the job cuts because the university falls under the control of the Board of Governors for Higher Education.