Crunch Time Redux

We are about to see how well equipped Old Main is to deal with the hard times ahead.

University Park, Pa. – Pennsylvania’s Secretary of the Budget has asked Penn State to plan for a $15 million budget cut.

Recent predictions that Pennsylvania’s revenues are running substantially below projections just three months into the budget year have prompted the state to request that Penn State hold 4.25 percent of its $338 million appropriation in reserve.

“We are hoping that our very modest appropriation increase in recent years and the two mid-year rescissions we received just a few years back will encourage the governor to spare us any further cuts,” said President Graham Spanier. “We are mindful of the difficult financial circumstance faced by the Commonwealth and its citizens, but the loss of such a large portion of our appropriation will obviously present a challenge for the University and our students.”

Spanier said the possible rescission of funds from the state means that virtually all units of the university will be expected to participate in further budget reductions. The University had already instituted an across-the-board reduction in the operating budgets of all departments at the beginning of the fiscal year and has since notified all administrators of further cuts. Some positions will be eliminated, in most cases through attrition, and other positions will go unfilled. In addition, departments throughout the university will be asked to further tighten their belts and strive for additional efficiencies.

Being a master bullshitters is unlikely to be of much use. And my guess is that the looming recession will make the recession of the early nineties look like a walk in the woods for the University.


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