2008 Woodie Awards
Carcieri's new budget takes $12.1M away from university
Tyler Will
Issue date: 2/5/08 Section: News
2/5/08 - R.I. Gov. Donald Carcieri asked the state General Assembly to cut $17.1 million from Rhode Island's three public colleges Friday when he released his budget for the next fiscal year.
The cut was the third largest item in a budget aimed at sealing an estimated $384 million state budget deficit.
URI president Robert L. Carothers said yesterday that the cut will take a total of $12.1 million from the university budget in two phases. This fiscal year, the school will lose $2.1 million, while $10 million will be taken away next fiscal year.
"We're back to about the same level we were in 1989," Carothers said.
Carothers said that after the recent cut, state funding makes up 12 percent of the university's budget and the upcoming fiscal year will be "painful."
Next year's state funding will be $65 million, down from this year's $75 million.
The governor's budget calls for $1.1 million in cuts to personnel and $282,456 in reductions to general operating expenses, among other items. The proposal would also furlough all URI state workers for six days, forcing them to take six-unpaid days to save the university an estimated $829,928, a figure not included in the $2.1 million cut Carothers cited. Carcieri did not address in his budget how the university would operate if professors were compelled to leave while classes were in session.
Carothers said he expects no faculty reductions, and added the state's budget cut will be handled by URI budget adjustments, a raise in student tuition and possibly a decrease in student financial aid.
Carothers said tuition prices are expected to rise at least 6 percent next fall.
"That's the number the [Rhode Island] Board of Governors [for Higher Education] passed last summer," he said. "The question that's being asked is will we have to go higher than that?"
R.I. Commissioner for Higher Education Jack Warner, who could not be reached for comment by press time, told The Providence Journal that the cuts "present serious problems for students and family."
The cut was the third largest item in a budget aimed at sealing an estimated $384 million state budget deficit.
URI president Robert L. Carothers said yesterday that the cut will take a total of $12.1 million from the university budget in two phases. This fiscal year, the school will lose $2.1 million, while $10 million will be taken away next fiscal year.
"We're back to about the same level we were in 1989," Carothers said.
Carothers said that after the recent cut, state funding makes up 12 percent of the university's budget and the upcoming fiscal year will be "painful."
Next year's state funding will be $65 million, down from this year's $75 million.
The governor's budget calls for $1.1 million in cuts to personnel and $282,456 in reductions to general operating expenses, among other items. The proposal would also furlough all URI state workers for six days, forcing them to take six-unpaid days to save the university an estimated $829,928, a figure not included in the $2.1 million cut Carothers cited. Carcieri did not address in his budget how the university would operate if professors were compelled to leave while classes were in session.
Carothers said he expects no faculty reductions, and added the state's budget cut will be handled by URI budget adjustments, a raise in student tuition and possibly a decrease in student financial aid.
Carothers said tuition prices are expected to rise at least 6 percent next fall.
"That's the number the [Rhode Island] Board of Governors [for Higher Education] passed last summer," he said. "The question that's being asked is will we have to go higher than that?"
R.I. Commissioner for Higher Education Jack Warner, who could not be reached for comment by press time, told The Providence Journal that the cuts "present serious problems for students and family."