Premature Fatalism

Just as the faculty are starting to get worked up, messages are coming down of the cuts as a done deal. At UC Santa Barbara, Executive Vice Chancellor Gene Lucas, someone I like quite a bit, passed on a message announcing a hiring freeze that reads in part as follows:

we are estimating that, factoring in current fee increases and the salary savings for 2009-10 from the pay reduction program, we still face at least an additional $25 million reduction of our campus budget this coming year, and possibly a similar sized reduction in 2010-11. Clearly, we are on a multi-year path of becoming a smaller institution in faculty, staff and students. We‚ll reduce program and services as well, but a budget reduction this large over such a short period of time means a reduction in the number of students we service as well as the faculty and staff that serve them.

I admire the candor of noting that this time the cuts are going to redefine the function of the university - even quality is quietly up for grabs.

I dislike the sense that the cuts are all a done deal, which guarantees that they will happen.

Charlie Schwartz has an analysis of UC presidential math that I haven't analyzed in detail, but that should be pondered. A couple of Senate friends of mine have also been unable to get the cuts arithmetic to add up right.

I'm still looking for a worse-case cut than UC.