Hemenway details impact of budget cuts on KU

(Left to right) Executive Vice Chancellor for University Relations Janet Murguia talks with Sen. Steve Morris and Executive Vice Chancellor for the Medical Center Don Hagen before KU's hearing Thursday with the Senate Ways and Means Subcommittee on Higher Education.

By most measures -- the quality of students, teaching, research, and service to the state -- KU is stronger than it's ever been. But in the face of steep budget cuts, the University "has seldom been more vulnerable," Chancellor Robert Hemenway said in testimony March 7 before the state Senate Ways and Means Committee's Subcommittee on Higher Education.

At the hearing Hemenway detailed for the first time reductions in staffing and services required for a projected $15.4 million, or 6.4 percent, cut to the KU budget.

"If the legislature does nothing to resolve this shortfall," Hemenway said, "KU will take a budget cut of historic proportions during fiscal year 2003, and it's a bigger cut than most other state agencies are being required to absorb."

On the Lawrence campus, the cuts would be met by leaving unfilled, or eliminating, as many as 175 faculty and staff positions. Departmental operating budgets and operating hours of certain museums and public service units would be cut.

The KU Medical Center has already sought permission from the state to begin a reduction in classified employee staff. The Medical Center would eliminate as many as 90 classified and unclassified staff positions, including the elimination or reduction in state support for about 20 faculty positions.

The Medical Center also anticipates phasing out the physical therapy program conducted at Pittsburg State University via distance education, eliminating a nursing program in neo-natal care; and cutting back of outreach efforts statewide, including a program that supplies temporary replacement doctors to rural communities.

In other legislative news:
· The House passed a bonding initiative for $110 million in university research facilities for KU, Kansas State University and Wichita State University. The authorized bonds will not require state spending in 2003 and limits the state's contribution to $10 milion in any budget year and $50 million over five years.

· Revenue forecasters on March 8 estimated the state now has a $680 million gap between projected revenue and expenses.

Read the chancellor's full testimony www.ur.ku.edu/News/02N/MarNews/Mar7/testimony.html

How to help KU during the Legislative session.
- Write the governor, urging his support for university budgets. Your letter should be in your own words. Include your return address and phone number.
- Write your legislator and other community leaders.
- Call your legislator and express support for KU and Regents initiatives. When you call, identify yourself, your line of work, and where you live.
- Encourage friends and colleagues who are KU alumni or who have children at KU to write or call their legislators.
- Visit your legislator. Express support for KU and higher education.
- Be a KU ambassador. Proudly display your Jayhawk heritage.

For more information, write or call Janet Murguia, Executive Vice Chancellor for University Relations, at (785) 864-7100, jmurguia@ku.edu, or Fred Williams, Alumni Association President and CEO, at (785) 864-4760, fbw-pres@kualumni.org.

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