Big Ten universities feel effects of downturned economy through budget cuts, tuition increases

University of Nebraska-Lincoln students, staff and faculty greeted Chancellor Harvey Perlman's proposed $5 million budget cuts for the next fiscal year with a mixture of shock, anger and resignation. Even Perlman admitted they wouldn't improve UNL and were only a step backward.

Among other reasons for the cuts, Perlman and other university officials have cited increased expenses, a faculty salary freeze they couldn't sustain any longer and fiscal troubles in Nebraska.

Nebraska is facing a projected shortfall of almost $1 billion in its next two-year budget and the state is likely to freeze its funding for public universities like UNL for the coming years.

Nebraska isn't alone as states and their universities across the country, including in the Big Ten Conference, face the axe of squeezed budgets.

Iowa

The University of Iowa plans to increase its in-state tuition by 5 percent in the coming year. The school welcomed its largest-ever freshman class this year and is expecting an even larger class in upcoming years, according to Tom Moore, the university's interim spokesman.

According to an editorial written by members of the student body government, much of Iowa's funding comes from two sources: tuition and state appropriations. The latter has been drastically cut — by as much as a fifth in the last two years — a pattern that has stretched over a decade.

The student government and other university officials agree, however, that it could have been worse — the tuition increase could have been three times as high.

In contrast, UNL's funding includes private donations in addition to tuition and state appropriations. Private sources, tuition and state funds each come to roughly a third of overall money coming in, according to Nebraska University officials. In addition, while Nebraska Gov. Dave Heineman's proposed budget cuts several areas of government support to make up for the state's shortfall, university funding is not among them.

"Economic success and education success are linked together," Heineman told the state legislature early this year in his State of the State address. "We need both."

It seems likely the bill, or at least the funding for universities, will match the governor's proposal.

"Things are still … tentative," said state senator Lavon Heidemann, chairman of the Appropriations Committee. "It would be my guess that the proposal for the university … won't be much different."

UNL has therefore avoided the major pressure of state cuts on Iowa's universities, even as the economy began to sour. Still, there have been some bumps in the road.

"Since April of 2002, we've had eight rounds of budget cuts," said Kelly Barling, UNL news manager. "All total … we've cut $39.7 million from our budget."

Bartling added that over the same period, those cuts have been manifested in a loss of 256 full-time equivalent personnel, including 56 faculty.

That figure does not include Perlman's $5 million cut from the next fiscal year or the additional $5 million to $10 million cut he said is coming next semester.

Wisconsin

Scott Walker, Wisconsin's newly elected governor, proposed and, in many instances, won major cuts to his state's budget, which is facing an estimated $3.6 billion shortfall in its next biennium. The cuts to public unions' rights and the cost they incur on the government drew statewide protests that included many university students and drew nationwide attention.