MTSU will suffer another budget cut of $3.2 million due to low state tax revenues needed for Tennessee's overall budget.
The $3,281,000 will be part of $43.7 million that will be cut from all public universities in Tennessee.
"The budget was cast based on the projections of what the state tax revenues would be, and the economy, as you know, has been in such bad shape that the state tax revenues are not coming up in accordance to what their projections were," said Mary Morgan, director of communications for the Tennessee Board of Regents. "The state budget has to be balanced, so they have to begin now to make cuts in the state expenditures to try to get it back in sync with what the actual revenues are turning out to be."
President Sidney McPhee said that MTSU expected an additional cut after the first budget cut of $6 million earlier this year.
"We set aside funds to manage the budget cuts without major destruction in the middle of the semester," McPhee said.
However, McPhee said that if more budgets cuts have to be made, the emergency funds will already be used up.
"It's not going to dramatically affect students, but it's currently affecting students now with higher tuition," McPhee said. "Students should expect the impact that it will have on them."
Morgan said that the budget cuts are not directly related to what is happening on Wall Street, but the general economic situation definitely has an impact on the state tax revenues.
"I think the Wall Street meltdown has influenced the budget cuts at MTSU," said Sean Jackson, freshman mass communication major.
Jackson said he wishes additional budget cuts would not have to be made because it takes away from student resources.
Courtney Tune, junior electronic media journalism major, said she fears future budget cuts will take away academic programs and computer labs.
"I don't want it to affect my graduation," Tune said.
Altogether, the budget cut at MTSU is 3.4 percent, while the $44 million will be divided out among universities equally.
"The department of finance is having to make adjustments now to make sure that the overall state budget stays within available state revenues," said Bob Adams, vice chancellor for business and finance of TBR.
Adams said that despite the budget cut, TBR will not increase tuition for the spring 2009 semester.
"We will absolutely not raise tuition during the current year," Adams said. "A decision for next year is still quite a way off."
All universities have until Friday, Oct. 15 to accumulate a general budget plan that they must be presented to TBR.
McPhee said that MTSU is going to look at the overall budget and compile a plan to be presented to TBR on Oct. 17.
Even though tuition will not increase in the spring, students might be affected in other ways.
"Long-term, there may be things a campus might want to do but won't be able to," Adams said.
Morgan said that Tennessee has had strong funding within the past couple of years, but with budget cuts such as these, it could deteriorate any progress already made.
"It's going to make things harder and tighter," Morgan said. "There will be belt-tightening on all of our campuses."
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