IU faces budget cut, tuition hike

Facing budget cuts of $55.5 million from the state, the University will have to make cuts in information technology and campus maintenance and raise tuition again next year, IU President Myles Brand said Friday.\nThe cuts will affect the budget period ending in 2003.\nThe state is also withholding $37 million in IU operating funds for June 2002, a move that will force the University to dip into reserves to meet payroll expenses.\n"The reserves just about cover (the $37 million). There isn't much more there," Brand said. \nHe added that the state committed to refund the $37 million within three years.\nNews of the IU cuts came from a Thursday evening speech by Gov. Frank O'Bannon in which he outlined a "fiscal crisis" that "threatens our very way of life in Indiana."\nBrand said the need for cuts in the University budget were to be expected.\n"The state is undergoing great fiscal stress," Brand said. "No institution or agency of the state is immune from this."\nIU administrators are crafting contingency plans amid layers of uncertainty. \n"We're still waiting for numbers from the State Budget Agency," IU spokesman Bill Stephan said. \nO'Bannon's proposals are subject to changes drafted by legislators during the spring session. \nBrand said tuition will go up, but hikes will be tempered by concerns about keeping higher education accessible to low-income students.\n"We're very concerned that students who want to come to school will not be kept out by financial reasons," he said.\nBrand said he plans to confer with trustees, deans and chancellors as details of the reductions take shape.\n"We want to make sure IU remains academically superior," he said. "In addition to making cuts, it's important as a state to look forward to the future and find ways to help the state position itself economically so this doesn't keep happening." \nJudy Palmer, vice president and chief financial officer, broke down the $55.5 million cut in terms of about $18 million that was shaved from the IU budget after the 2001-2003 budget was initially passed in April.\nFurther cuts announced Thursday chalk up another $12 million in cuts in information technology, in addition to $13 million shaved off the repair and rehabilitation funds. Another $12 million will come out of operating appropriations.\nIU's annual state operating appropriation is $436 million.\nRepair and rehabilitation funds are filtered through the IU Physical Plant and earmarked for building maintenance and capital infrastructure.\nPalmer stressed that the information is preliminary.\n"Our information from Thursday evening is very tentative," she said. "We have no specific information about how the cuts will be implemented."\nPalmer did note that the information technology cuts will target IU's five-year Information Technology Strategic Plan. The plan marked an overhaul in University hardware and software starting in the spring of 2000. That plan includes Student Information Systems, which made online registration available and was introduced to enhance IU's recruitment and retention functions.\nThe Human Resources Information System is another part of the initiative that will see reductions. It was developed to streamline operations in payroll, benefits administration and personnel management.\nThe Life-Cycle funding program will also downsize under budgetary constraints. The program was slated to replace all IU computers after three years and keep central systems and networks current. It was implemented to keep IU competitive amid changes in bandwidth and computational power. \nAs the legislature examines the budget, Brand encourages students to remind their representatives of the importance of the University in the scheme of Indiana's overall strength.\n"People have to be realistic. We'll face cuts," Brand said. "But we don't want to harm the University in the long term. They need to direct attention to strategic issues facing the economy, not just solving budget problems but looking at what we want the state to become"