Kookocracy lies about university cuts

If ASU were to close its dormitories and bookstore and stop doing
federally funded research and stop playing football, the revenue
associated with those activities would also end. So, it is a fiction
that ASU has other revenue that could begin to replace the loss of
state revenue.

State revenue and the tuition paid by students account for 79
percent of ASU’s instructional budget. To make up the loss of state
funding, tuition for in-state students would need to be almost doubled
to $11,000 a year.

Fiction: The proposed legislative budget won’t really hurt ASU. The university has gotten a lot of new state money in recent years.

Fact: The proposed budget cut would take student
funding at ASU back about 20 years, from $8,111 per full-time student
(or equivalent) in 2008 to $4,902 for 2010, which is lower than the
$5,017 ASU received in 1989. To see the full chart of state funding
from 1986-2010, click here.  

The State of Arizona has experienced substantial population growth
and more qualified students are choosing to attend ASU every year,
resulting in an enormous demand for and growth in the university's
enrollment – from 43,000 students in 1989 and 50,000 students in 2000
to 67,000 students today. Enrollment growth funding over the last 20
years has not kept pace with actual enrollment growth. So, most of the
“new” money ASU has received in recent years is “catch-up” money,
intended to bring Full-time Equivalent student funding back to previous
levels.

Furthermore, the state has no regular capital construction or
maintenance budget for its universities. Twice over the last six years
ASU has gotten a special appropriation to build badly needed new
buildings. These additions are in no way “excess funds” that the
university can cut without there being drastic consequences.

Fiction: The budget proposals on the table are merely options so no one should be overly concerned about them.

Fact: No other options have been put on the table by the Legislature. Historically in Arizona,
legislative budget options often become the actual budget. Even as a
starting point, these cuts are so extreme that the ending point could
still have dire consequences for ASU. So, there is cause for grave
concern.

Fiction: ASU is unwilling to make cuts.

Fact: ASU has already taken more than $37 million
in state funding cuts and prepared for further reductions by
eliminating a total of 500 staff positions and 200 faculty associate
positions. We have disestablished schools and merged academic departments while managing to preserve academic quality.

The university is prepared to take additional cuts but we must be
clear about what needs to be done to reach the funding reductions laid
out in the proposed legislative budget. These actions could include:

* Laying off thousands more employees.

* Having a massive furlough of all remaining employees for two weeks or longer.

* Increasing tuition and fees.

* Closing academic programs.

* Closing a campus or possibly two.

Fiction: These cuts are no more than short-term pruning or fat-cutting.

Fact: The intended or unintended consequences of
these cuts would be to move ASU away from being a research university –
which it became 50 years ago by vote of the people of Arizona – back to
being a state college without graduate programs or research.