 "Photo: Jay Bailey")
President Sidney McPhee spoke in two open forum meetings this week to address the budget crisis for faculty, staff and students, who showed up in droves amid concern for university programs and positions.
"We cannot continue with business as usual at this institution if we are going to continue to exist," McPhee said. "We can't do this without major restructuring, major bleeding and significant pain."
The office of the president held two faculty open forums which attracted more people than could even fit in the room. The first took place Tuesday at 3 p.m. and the second Wednesday at 1:30 p.m.
"I was impressed by the sense of transparency that was displayed in terms of the budget," said Vincent Windrow, director of Intercultural and Diversity Affairs. "[Especially] in terms of the allocations of money and President McPhee's forthrightness in detailing that there are some hard times coming."
The forums are a direct result of Tennessee's budget cuts, which the state government has demanded of the state departments twice in the 2008 fiscal year. Gov. Phil Bredesen has made two budget rescissions already, the first for 6.1 percent (about $6.1 million) on July 1 and another 3.4 percent (about $3.2 million) on Oct. 1.
According to McPhee, anywhere from $9 to $13 million will be cut from the budget again, but this time the consequences will be more severe.
"The President said that in the first two budget cuts, academic affairs was largely spared," said Paul Fischer, professor of recording industry. "This time, however, he will not be able to do this, and some things to go might be academic programs and student and faculty positions. He said very plainly that the state is going to ask for more."
Another issue that could potentially be affected by the budget cuts is class size and student to teacher ratios in the future.
"Students I think should be concerned with what classes are going to be offered," said Larry Burriss, journalism professor. "Obviously in the past we have been able to offer a class for three or four students; we may not be able to do that for a while. You may be in larger classes. Before you might have had two classes of 30, now you may have one class of 60."
What's more jarring is the fact that the height of the recession has yet to fully impact universities nationwide, including MTSU.
McPhee said the problem is a national one, rooted in the declining economy. He said there are no "sacred cows," including tenured faculty positions and student workers.
"Our budget for Tennessee is getting tighter as money trickles down from the national level," Fischer said. "Tennessee's primary source of income is sales tax, and with the economy like it is, people tend to buy less so that Tennessee collects less money."
McPhee said that even though it is an option, eliminating faculty and cutting positions would be a last resort.
"He obviously had some bad news, and there may be positions cut, but he also said that we are going to try and keep this as humane as we can," Burriss said. "There are still a lot of questions out there, but at this point we just don't have the answers to those questions. We are trying to minimize the impact, but there are going to be some negative impacts. But we will go on."
McPhee also announced the formation of four task forces to help with the coming changes in the university, including External Resource Development; Energy Efficiency and Conservation Initiatives; Realignment, Restructuring, Consolidation or Elimination of Non-Academic Programs; and Review of Academic Progress.
"In terms of the president, I felt that McPhee's efforts were admirable," said Fischer. "He made the point that this is inescapable, and that the effects on MTSU will be bad before the worst of this [economic crisis] hits."
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