At the senate Rutgers takes steps to meet state budget gap Archived article from Feb 1, 2002 By Douglas Frank   The university has imposed a freeze on discretionary spending, including a deferral of hiring, while it analyzes Gov. James E. McGreevey's mandate for an immediate 5 percent cut in the university's budget and develops a reduction plan for the current fiscal year. Since the reduction plan will replace the freeze and deferral, the university's senior administrators are working to identify ways to deal with the shortfall in state support as quickly as possible. The measure was announced at the University Senate meeting Jan. 25 by Nancy Winterbauer, vice president for university budgeting, who added that exceptions will be permitted in the most critical cases with appropriate approvals. In an e-mail message sent to the university community following the meeting, President Francis L. Lawrence said, "We will need to make the required sacrifices while working to protect our core teaching, student and research functions." Both Winterbauer and University Vice President for Academic Affairs Joseph J. Seneca discussed university budget matters at the senate meeting prior to Seneca's presentation of the state of the New Brunswick campus address. The decision to suspend discretionary spending came after the governor met with public higher education presidents on Jan. 24 to discuss higher education's share in the state's budget cuts, Winterbauer said. "A cut of that magnitude is going to be very serious," Winterbauer asserted, noting that some $20 million by June "is a ballpark estimate of the range of numbers we're looking at." She said the university cabinet met to "look at the numbers and identify projects that can be delayed or eliminated. We need to come out with a reduction plan as soon as possible." Winterbauer added that the administration is "very concerned about how we manage this budget cut so we don't exacerbate next year's problems. The predictions are no better; in fact, they are worse. We must be careful not to plug this year's holes with temporary measures so that next year's problems become more difficult," she said. In his budget remarks, Seneca reported that the State Council of Economic Advisors, which he chairs, will be presenting its annual outlook on the economic picture of the state. The report will show that all growth indicators are down or in the negative range for the coming calendar year. "After a very, very good run of years economically for New Jersey and the region, the state is fully engulfed in the effects of a national recession and the aftershocks of the evil attack on America on Sept. 11, which impacted this state and region disproportionately," he said. Seneca added that the governor announced strong support for higher education in the long run, "but the immediate problems are so large and so overwhelming that he felt compelled to reduce the budgets." He warned that 5 percent is "telescoped into a very small part of the fiscal year, thus magnifying the effects." State of the campus In his state of the New Brunswick campus report, Seneca said the campus "can take pride in the innovative ways we have used the increased funding that we have received over the last several years to support our core academic and instructional missions." His report focused on the "concept of a student-centered research university, on what those words mean and how we make them living concepts for our students and for our faculty and to continue developing activities and programs that directly impact student learning and student life at the university in a research setting." The university vice president cited a number of current projects that are meeting those criteria, including: The undergraduate research fellows program, in which 50 students are interacting with faculty in research projects New grants for innovations in programs to integrate student life and learning A First-Year Interest Group program at Rutgers College that lets students pick from a wide range of one-credit, 10-week courses An innovative career and psychological counseling program for first-year at-risk students at the Livingston Counseling Center A program at Douglass College to examine the legal, ethical and social aspects of capital punishment At the libraries, some 45 networked electronic resources added this year, from the humanities to the sciences, "a click away from home, dorm or residence or computer lab" Increased access to reserve course materials online, "which is much more efficient than waiting at the reserve desk in line" Some 100 residence halls and 60 academic buildings wired to date, "with more coming online through RUNet" An electronic grade-submission process, being piloted in the math department, which will give students faster access to their grades. In its regular business, the senate recommended providing the same health-care benefits to holders of graduate fellowships that are currently given to teaching assistants and graduate assistants. TAs and GAs, as university employees, receive the same benefits as the faculty.

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