Impact of 10% budget reduction directed by UNC-GA
A – Centers and Institutes – Reduction of $1,818,839
Reductions in state funding to Centers and Institutes, along with other reductions to academic affairs and reductions to extension and research budgets, will impact the University’s core instructional, public service, and research functions.
Analytical Instrumentation Facility (AIF)
Established in 1923, the AIF provides NC State faculty and students access to micro- and nano-analysis instrumentation and to materials analysis professionals who can assist with training, instrument operation, experimental design and data analysis. The effect of personnel funding reductions will be less responsiveness to requests for services.
Center for Chemical Toxicology Research and Pharmacokinetics (CCTRP)
The Cutaneous Pharmacology and Toxicology Center was chartered in 1989 to "perform scientific research on the structure and function of skin focused on transdermal drug delivery, cutaneous toxicology, metabolism and pharmacokinetics employing innovative animal models and other pharmacokinetic research." This research led to the creation of the USDA-supported Food Animal Residue Avoidance Databank (FARAD) in 1981 and United Nations Food & Agriculture Organization-supported global FARAD. FARAD performs residue avoidance data analysis and provides assistance in preventing residues in animal-derived food across the USA and internationally. The Center was renamed the CCTRP in 2001 to reflect this dual mission. Graduate and post-graduate training programs in comparative pharmacology, general toxicology, and nanotechnology produce health scientists for academia, industry and government. Reductions in state-funded salaries for Center employees will decrease research productivity and could delay responses to food animal veterinarians trying to prevent contamination of the food supply with antibiotic and other chemical residues.
Center for Family and Community Engagement (CFACE)
Officially incorporated as a center in 2008, CFACE is dedicated to community-university partnerships with and in support of families. Such engagement strengthens local leadership and develops the networks necessary for fostering healthy families and productive communities. The budget reduction will result in reduced opportunities for students and faculty for internships and research as well as loss of services to NC children and families who are victims of child abuse.
Center for High Performance Simulation (CHiPS)
Established in 2005, CHiPS brings together expertise from across NC State in electronic, atomic, meso-scale, and macroscopic simulation methods and offers advanced training and research to graduate students. The reduction in operating funds for the center will restrict the ability to bring in visiting scientists, facilitate interactions, and support students.
Center for R&D in Math and Science Education (CRMSE)
Formed in 1984, CRMSE has established partnerships with federal, state, local, and private agencies to work collaboratively to enhance mathematics and science education. Reassignment in administrative support and reduction of funding for an evaluation coordinator will shift administrative burden to professionals doing CRMSE work and reduce CRMSE’s ability to provide needed service to other Math and Science Education Network Centers throughout the state.
Center for Urban Affairs and Community Services (CUACS)
Established in 1966, CUACS provides applied research and technical assistance to state and local governments, public agencies, and non-profit organizations, improving the lives of North Carolinians. The reduction of personnel funds will increase the need to secure additional contracts and grants from state agencies such as NCDPI, where budget cuts will limit their potential for contract and grants work that CUACS depends on to sustain its operation.
ENCORE Center for Lifelong Enrichment
Since 1992, the ENCORE Center has provided opportunities for lifelong learning and enrichment for people over 50 through education, intellectual stimulation, and community involvement. The elimination of appropriated funds will require the ENCORE Center to be dissolved and converted to a for-fee program.
Friday Institute (FI)
The Friday Institute is engaged in leading-edge approaches to blend and coordinate work in the areas of educational research, practice, and policy. Established in 2005 to advance education through innovation in teaching, learning, and leadership, the FI works closely with NCDPI, the State Board of Education, the Office of the Governor, relevant legislative committees, and a wide range of partners including non-profit organizations (e.g., New Schools Project), private sector partners (e.g., IBM, Cisco, SAS), foundations (e.g., GoldenLeaf), and schools and districts throughout the State. Major programs and projects will continue, but the elimination of funding for research associate positions and substantial reduction of funds for contracting services will harm the Institute’s ability to seize initiatives and respond quickly to opportunities as they arise, diminishing its effectiveness in promoting best practices in education.
Furniture Manufacturing and Management Center (FMMC)
The goal of the FMMC (formed in 1992) is to assist furniture manufacturers in developing and maintaining the capability to respond quickly to market changes while producing products that are competitive worldwide in terms of price, styling, and quality. The required reduction will result in reduced extension to support the furniture industry.
General Hugh Shelton Leadership Center
The Center provides leadership development programs for students, scholarships, and an annual Leadership Forum. Established in 2007, the mission of the Center is to inspire, educate, and develop values-based leaders committed to personal integrity, professional ethics, and selfless service. Budget reductions will severely impact campus-based student leadership activities.
Institute for Emerging Issues
The IEI was established in 1980 as a “think-and-do” tank that convenes leaders from business, government, non-profit organizations, and higher education to tackle the biggest issues facing North Carolina. The reduction of personnel funds will reduce core programs and efforts within IEI, as no other funds are available to supplement the program.
Institute of Statistics (IS)
Over the 65 years since its establishment, the work of the IS has become fully integrated into the regular academic activities of faculty and staff in the Department of Statistics. Teaching, student mentoring and collaborative research in IS are little different from that in other departments. Indeed, other departments have “program”- (or “purpose”-) code 110 funds with similar histories yet not associated with formal centers or institutes. There is no longer a reason for the Institute of Statistics to be a separate organizational unit in the college. Thus, those organized research funds will be replaced with regular term instruction funds to better reflect their “purpose.” The funds required to do so result in a missed opportunity to add about 1,350 seats and 21 sections.
Integrated Manufacturing Systems Engineering Institute (IMSE)
Highly valued by NC industry since 1983, the IMSE has provided an environment in which faculty and students from different relevant disciplines can interact with each other and with industry in common areas of manufacturing systems engineering education and research. Reduction in graduate funding reduces the ability to leverage industry support and the ability to attract students and industrial sponsors.
Millenium Seminars
North Carolina State University’s Millennium Seminar Series was designed to engage, encourage and inspire NC State students throughout the academic year. Funding to support the Millennium Seminars Speakers Series will be eliminated; the $105,000 represents the amount of state appropriations used to pay operating expenses incurred for the Millennium Seminars Speaker Series in FY 2008-09.
Minerals Research Lab (MRL)
The MRL was established in 1954 to be a recognized world leader in research, development, and implementation of mineral processing and other separation techniques and to enhance technical and education services provided to faculty, students, industry, and the state. Personnel costs will be shifted to other revenue sources without loss of services.
Non-Wovens Institute (NWI)
Reductions to the Nonwovens Cooperative Research Center (NCRC), an integral part of the Nonwovens Institute, will directly impact research and education as all state funds are used to support graduate students. The NCRC was established as a State/Industry-University Cooperative Research Center (State/IUCRC) in 1991 as a result of a grant from the National Science Foundation and is a very successful industry member-supported center that highly leverages state support. The reduction in research support will have an impact on economic development, since this center has played a major role in attracting new companies or expansions of existing nonwoven textile companies in North Carolina. The center supports 74 leading nonwovens companies from throughout the world as well as 29 located in North Carolina.
The Ergonomics Center of North Carolina (TECNC)
The TECNC is a public service membership center specifically authorized by the NC General Assembly. It was established in 1984 through a partnership with the NC Department of Labor Division of Occupational Health and Safety to assist employees and employers in preventing occupational musculoskeletal disorders and optimizing human-machine work systems design from safety and performance perspectives. Personnel funding has been reduced with the effect that the TECNC will be less responsive to requests for services.
Water Resources Research Institute (WRRI)
WRRI is an inter-institutional research and education center of the North Carolina University System administered by NC State University. Established in 1965 by executive action of UNC President William C. Friday, WRRI is one of 54 state water institutes authorized by the Water Resources Research Act of 1964 to administer and promote federal/state partnerships in research and information transfer on water-related issues. Budget cuts will reduce research funds to the constituent institutions. WRRI will now be jointly administered with NC Sea Grant, resulting in the reduction of 0.5 FTE of a leadership position.
B – Business Affairs – Reduction of $1,267,992
Recent changes in our financial and student administrative systems and improvements in procedures and business processes will permit efficiencies that result in the elimination of five positions in the Financial Services division. The primary efficiency areas are: 1) requirement that students must pay their bills online or through the mail to the University’s lockbox; 2) eliminate outsourcing of electronic bills to students by using University software to generate the electronic bills; 3) increase the use of direct deposit for refunds to students; 4) increase use of the university’s online billing capabilities instead of manually billing customers; 5) continue increasing automation of the purchasing and payment systems; 6) increased use of electronic payments to vendors resulted in a reduction in banking fees and negotiated lower banking rates; and 7) eliminate the option for all students, except those with special circumstances, to receive paper bills.
The Chancellor’s Office and the Office of the Vice Chancellor for Finance and Business both have very few direct support positions but have eliminated the three positions. These staff reductions will impact support to the Board of Trustees, the organizing and scheduling of special events for the chancellor, and eliminating the receptionist position for the Office of Finance and Business. In addition, the Chancellor’s student intern position is eliminated, memberships in several national and regional associations have been cancelled, and a significant reduction in the volume of materials sent to the Board of Trustees will be required. Staff reductions will place a heavier burden on the remaining staff in the Chancellor’s and Vice Chancellor’s Offices as these reductions are not efficiency-related but the result of the requirement to reduce budgets.
The university is required to maintain appropriate controls on the receipt and expenditure of resources in accordance with State, Federal, UNC system, and prudent business management practices. At the same time as these controls are in place, the university makes every effort to avoid unnecessary bureaucracy in day to day procedures and processes. In addition, when events occur that expose the university to risk and potential litigation, structures must be in place to address such situations. The budget reductions in this area include the elimination of one internal auditor, one attorney, and a support position in the Department of Insurance and Risk Management. All three of these areas are minimally staffed for the work they do on a daily basis and these reductions will require shifting duties and responsibilities to other staff that already have heavy workloads. The result will be slower response times on critical audits, less preventive legal advice and delayed response to critical legal questions especially those related to research contractual issues and entrepreneurial endeavors, and in reviewing insurance coverage and processing claims. In addition, a significant reduction will be made to the ADA renovation projects budget that helps to maintain compliance with ADA (Adults with Disabilities Administration) rules and regulations. Only the highest priority projects from a sizable backlog of ADA projects will be funded placing additional physical restrictions and demands on a population that by law must be given access.
Reductions in business operations and processing that are not the result of efficiency in processes and systems require the reduction of one EPA professional and three SPA positions in Human Resources, the reduction from full to three-quarter time of an SPA senior budget analyst position, and elimination of the temporary wage budgets in the Controller’s Office systems accounting unit and the Budget office. SPA staff reductions in Human Resources are in the Employee Relations, Position Classification, and Recruitment Services units and will adversely impact response time to campus customers, employers, and candidates for employment. The EPA position loss is a senior leadership position responsible for many of the day-to-day operations of the HR Division. The staff losses will require increased workloads for other HR staff. Operating expense reductions are being made in all finance and business divisions, which will hinder the replacement of equipment, severely restrict travel for professional development, and impact the ability of these units to provide materials to faculty, staff, and administrators.
C – Academic Administration – Reduction of $1,658,036
Academic administrative units have taken steps to reorganize units, improve efficiency, and reduce staff and operating support. Collectively, the ten colleges and Provost’s Office will eliminate about 15 administrative and support positions and transfer responsibilities to remaining staff. Education has combined two departments, eliminating a department head and support staff, and the Graduate School will implement a more efficient method for processing transcripts, thereby saving staff time required both centrally and in the departments. Several colleges will reduce operating budgets that pay for educational supplies, photocopying course materials, and other support. These reductions will increase the workloads of remaining staff and administrative positions, reduce support to faculty and students, and delay processing of admissions, course registrations, licensure applications, classroom scheduling, budget and personnel actions, and other department-level functions.
In Undergraduate Academic Programs and University Planning and Analysis, three professional staff positions that support the assessment of student learning have been eliminated. The Graduate School will reduce the number of external reviewers when evaluating graduate programs. The College of Education will cut back the development and deployment of an information system used to monitor student progress, provide ongoing feedback to programs, and support compliance with state regulations and accreditation requirements. Impacts will include canceling NC State’s national assessment conference (which has become the third largest nationally), eliminating an assessment-consulting program for the community colleges, and reduced coordination of assessment across the university. NC State’s leadership in the assessment area will diminish, and its ability to meet accreditation requirements for assessment and program evaluation will be materially reduced.
E – Restructuring of Academic Programs – Reduction of $7,060,222
The colleges are pursuing a variety of strategies to streamline degree programs. In addition to five programs eliminated in early 2009 (MS in Agricultural and Resource Economics, BA in Health Occupations Education, and three bachelor’s degrees in special education). Agriculture and Life Sciences will delay implementation of the new genetics program, and Textiles will delay development of four graduate courses in medical textiles needed to support one of the University’s strategic focus areas. Engineering expects to curtail development of graduate programs, including courses for a new graduate program in energy to be delivered through the NSF-funded FREEDM Center. Education will cap its elementary education program, despite significant demand from applicants. Design plans to reconfigure its five undergraduate programs to require a common core of courses, with many courses to be reviewed and redesigned. Coordination of the University’s interdisciplinary genomics program will be disrupted, and development of new professional master’s degrees will slow. All of these strategies will reduce planned enrollment growth.
The University will invest fewer resources developing and promoting distance education programs. Development will be delayed in programs through the Upper Coastal Plains Learning Council, alternative teaching licensure programs, and collaborative engineering programs with UNC-Wilmington and community colleges. Enrollment in existing distance education courses offered outside of degree programs will be depressed. Substantially lower advertising budgets will likely affect enrollment, particularly at the Gateway Technology Center in Rocky Mount, since surveys have shown that more than half of our distance students learn about NC State programs through advertising.
Most significantly, NC State will lose funding and the opportunity to fill almost 40 vacant faculty positions. These losses will lead to gaps in faculty expertise in fundamental areas and reduce the quality and range of instructional programs, for example, in biological and agricultural engineering, animal science, and veterinary dermatology. In addition, they will halt the University’s progress in strengthening programs in areas central to its strategic plan and to UNC-Tomorrow goals: economic development, health and well-being, and energy and the environment. The University’s ability to develop instructional, research, clinical, and extension programs in critical emerging areas such as bio- and disaster preparedness, energy production and storage, climate change, comparative biomedicine, and infectious diseases will be limited.
Research programs will have more difficulty winning external support. For example, the College of Physical and Mathematical Sciences is discontinuing its partnership with the National Institute of Aerospace and several other major research universities. In addition, the loss of the equivalent of 12 faculty positions from Engineering will slow that college’s positive momentum in growing a research program that helps North Carolina attract and develop companies, create companies, and ultimately create jobs.
F – Research/Sponsored Programs – Reduction of $1,106,240
In addition to reductions in centers and institutes, reduced support for agricultural research, and reductions in research and sponsored programs as a result of lost faculty positions, budgets are being reduced for specific research programs. Personnel will be reduced in the Institute for Transportation Research and Education, making it more difficult to pursue external funding opportunities and reducing training for state transportation personnel. The administration of Sea Grant and the Water Resources Research Institute will be consolidated under a single director. Sea Grant will reduce the number of applied research projects in the Blue Crab and Shellfish Research Program, which supports the state’s fisheries industry, and research into blue crab farming will also be limited by a reduction in the Center for Marine Sciences and Technology (CMAST). CMAST will also reduce funding for a student summer fellows program and scale back the center located at Carteret Community College. The Institute for Nonprofit Research, Extension, and Engagement will reduce support for grant-writing and non-profit organizations. Reduced program funding for the Bioinformatics Research Center, will reduce student access to the Center’s resources. Finally, the Kenan Institute for Emerging Technology and Science will reduce operating expenses used for staff development and communications.
At the institutional level, Research Administration and the Graduate School will consolidate accounting functions and reduce operating expenses and publications. The reduction in the Centennial Campus Partnership Office will restrict the University’s effort to bring new partners to the campus, which may affect recruitment of companies to North Carolina.
G – Public Service – Reduction of $853,904
In addition to Cooperative Extension programs, scores of academic and administrative units across NC State provide technical assistance, training and education, clinical assistance, access to information, and other support to North Carolinians. Budget reductions will affect service to K-12 teachers, whose workshops and mentoring programs will be reduced; non-profit organizations, whose fees to use the McKimmon Center will no longer be waived; urban engagement programs in Wake and Durham Counties; affordable housing projects in Southeast Raleigh and for the Lumbee tribe; and continuing education for professional veterinarians. The Small Business Technology Development Center (SBTDC) has closed its Beaufort office, moved its Raleigh office off the Centennial Campus into more affordable space, and reduced support for programming on other UNC campuses. The Diagnostic Teaching Clinic will reduce personnel and will evaluate many fewer special needs children. The Libraries will reduce its contributions to NC Live, which provides remote access to its electronic collections to community colleges and public libraries across the state.
Reductions in outreach to K-12 students include the elimination of the Office of Pre-College Programs, which has coordinated programs to nurture middle and high school students’ interest in college and in NC State since 2007. Pre-college programs in Engineering and Veterinary Medicine are being reduced as well.
As a result of these reductions, NC State’s ability to provide knowledge-based assistance to citizens, neighborhoods, businesses, industries, and cities and towns and to contribute to higher college-going rates in North Carolina will be reduced.
H – Fund Raising and University Relations – Reduction of $841,363
Recent economic challenges resulting in diminished state appropriations to the University and significantly reduced external funding from contributions and earnings on endowments and other resources has forced the university to re-examine its fund-raising strategy. The Provost’s Office, Graduate School, and four colleges have reduced support for positions in their development operations, which places more responsibility on the central fund raising efforts of the Office of University Advancement. University Advancement eliminated a vacant SPA position and about $200,000 in operating support that will reduce their ability to support changes in relatively old IT fund-raising software, staff training and development, and other expenditures that might enhance the University’s ability to improve fund raising efforts. These cuts will make it extremely difficult to pursue best practices, particularly in major gift fund raising, and to retool staff and systems in advance of the next capital campaign.
The University has been assessing its overall communications environment and services at all level to determine the best and most efficient methods for informing our students, faculty, staff, alumni, donors, and friends about NC State. Electronic communications, the worldwide web, email, Facebook, My Space, iPods, Twitter, and so on, are all viable technologies that are being investigated to not only reduce communications costs but also improve communications to our internal and external community. As the new communication technology evolves, the Office of University Advancement will eliminate two television engineer positions. Administrative support via temporary wage or contracted services will also be reduced or eliminated in Alumni Affairs and University Communications. Print media for publications in the College of Physical and Mathematical Sciences and Provost’s Office will be shifted to online distribution. A significant reduction will also be made in support to the brand awareness campaign that will remove 11 million online advertising impressions, remove the search engine marketing campaign, measurement and monitoring that would place the University in the upper-most position within online search results, eliminate media training, and reduce the external contract that provides strategic guidance, creative support, and media relations.
I – Student Support – Reduction of $1,176,638
Consistent with UNC Tomorrow’s goals, one of NC State’s strategies is to “prepare leaders for the state, nation, and world.” Student leadership programs impacted by the budget reductions include the Center for Student Leadership, Ethics, and Public Service, a particularly successful program which supports students’ service to the community that is eliminating student transportation to service projects. The Graduate School is reducing the number of workshops designed to help graduate students supplement their discipline-specific skills with skills in teaching, research, and leadership. The University Scholars Program, which engages participating students in the arts and contemporary issues, will offer fewer programs to fewer students. Greek Life is reducing student workers by 50%, reducing advising and programming for over 2,200 students.
NC State has traditionally relied on co-curricular programs to develop students’ understanding and appreciation for the fine and applied arts. The Gregg Museum of Art and Design is reducing the number of exhibitions and cutting back on long-term conservation of artwork. ARTS NC STATE will decrease funds used to maintain music instruments and facilities.
To create a welcoming campus climate and demonstrate the University’s appreciation for the diverse backgrounds of its students, faculty, and staff, the University has established a variety of diversity programs for students. The African American Cultural Center (AACC), which houses exhibition space, library, and meeting facilities, promotes awareness and appreciation for the African American experience with speakers such as Morris Dees and with exhibits such as the retrospective of photographs by Gordon Parks. The AACC will eliminate all art exhibits in its gallery and reduce guest lectures. Celebratory events such as the campus-community Brotherhood Dinner and diversity awards banquets will be reduced or eliminated. Multicultural Student Affairs will eliminate graduate assistantships, and the Women’s Center will sponsor fewer events.
Reduced staff hours in a dozen or more student support offices across the University will increase the workload of remaining staff and reduce their effectiveness in responding to students’ questions and needs. A reduction in communications in the Career Center will affect students’ ability to connect with prospective employers. A reduction in Counseling Center hours will reduce student access to psychiatric services. Support programs for parents and families and for first generation students will be shifted to fees and federal contracts. The Office of Student Conduct will reduce summer staffing, reducing its capacity for judicial assessment and crisis response. Reductions in Disability Services will substantially limit the number of “reasonable accommodations” that can be offered to students needing interpreters, readers, scribes, Braille translators, and other services, impacting the University’s ability to comply with federal laws.
The cumulative effect of these reductions will be to diminish opportunities for NC State students to broaden their perspectives, apply their classroom knowledge in real-life “laboratories,” and access services that support their academic and personal development.
Enrollment Management and Services, which interacts with students from application to graduation, has identified a number of cost-saving strategies. Some recruiting and processing positions in Undergraduate Admissions will be eliminated, restricting capacity to provide a high level of customer service to families and possibly delaying the processing of applications. Undergraduate Admissions has improved efficiency by reducing mailing costs, and prospective students and families visiting campus will no longer receive free parking. Despite expanding federal regulations, a 20-25% increase in applications this year, and delays in external funding, the Financial Aid office will lose a position and operating support, leading to delays in financial aid awards and slower response to students and family concerns. The Registrar will reduce mailings, rely solely on email to communicate with students in academic difficulty, and increase transcript costs to alumni. Funds for commencement expenses will be reduced, providing a less satisfactory recognition of graduates’ achievements for their families. In addition, the Graduate School will eliminate less effective visits to recruiting fairs.
J – Information Technology – Reduction of $3,215,144
The Office of Information Technology (OIT) configures, deploys, manages, secures and monitors the data servers, data storage and backup systems that underlie all of NC State’s centrally supported administrative and academic computing services and data resources. Reductions of two positions in this area will mean that responses to server issues will be slower as the workload will be absorbed by other staff. Software and hardware maintenance support levels will be reduced, which may cause longer interruptions for campus before services can be restored when there are failures. One position working in the computer networking and telecommunication areas will also be eliminated which will reduce wireless network access services available to students and delay the implementation of nomad authentication upgrades. The delay in nomad authentication upgrades will push the hardware past its recommended lifecycle and increase the risk of failure of some parts of the system thereby reducing access.
Reductions of nine central IT staff working in enterprise applications creates a significant limit on the ability of the remaining staff to modify, update, and provide support for the administrative IT services that support HR, Finance, Student, and Advancement applications. All project teams will experience noticeable slowdowns in delivery dates as the remaining staff attempt to pick up the workload of eliminated positions. Software and hardware maintenance support levels will be reduced, so when equipment fails, campus users will experience longer interruptions before services can be restored. The University’s recently initiated collaboration effort with UNC-CH on the Human Resources and Financial applications will continue to be encouraged.
OIT monitors the IT network and computer security for the entire campus including scanning for network intrusion, complying with policies/mandates/laws, and handling incident response activities, resiliency plans, and software licensing management. The elimination of four positions will decrease efforts to develop and maintain a disaster/resiliency plan, extend time for responding to audits, and delay efforts to organize root cause analysis for IT problems, which will affect students, faculty and staff. Managerial and project management resources will decrease significantly and may impact monitoring of attacks/vulnerabilities, research for compliance with regulations/mandates, and the development of necessary rules, regulations, guidelines, and responses to audit findings and recommendations. Workloads of remaining staff will increase to take on additional duties from the eliminated positions.
K – Operation and maintenance of physical plant – Reduction of $5,793,435
Staffing and budgets designated for the renovation and improvement of classroom, distance education, and various other projects will be severely reduced. This will include the elimination of fourteen positions and reduction of $1.1 million in the operating budgeted reserved for facility renovations, improvements, and occupancy of new facilities. The backlog of required renovations will continue to growth with only the very highest priority projects being completed, which will eventually affect all campus departments and colleges. Facilities Division has eliminated four administrative and three capital project manager positions in its administrative departments. Remaining technical and administrative staff members will have an increased workload. As capital construction and major renovation funding ramps back up, re-creation of these positions will be required; if there is less staff to carry out the same capital program, the program will slow down thereby decreasing the buying power due to inflationary erosion of the capital budget.
With the elimination of fourteen housekeeping positions, housekeeping area assignments will increase substantially and service levels will be reduced impacting academic and research spaces. Dollars spent per gross square foot (GSF) will be approximately 16% below the average of peers based on the national benchmark data used as a result of the PACE initiative. Dollars spent per GSF are currently 15% below the UNC system average. In addition, five grounds maintenance positions will be eliminated which will impact turf care levels, fertilization/herbicide treatment cycles, litter control and annual bed plantings resulting in a decline of general campus appearance and therefore the ability to recruit students. Event support levels will be reduced to minimums. Dollars spent per acre will be approximately 45% below the average of peers based on the national benchmark data used as a result of the PACE initiative. Dollars spent per acre are currently 12% below the UNC system average. One position will be eliminated from the Sustainability program, which will hinder efforts through having lower visibility and utilization by the campus community. Earth Week activities will be suspended and our energy awareness campaign will slowed resulting in a loss of momentum in raising campus awareness to decrease consumption and help prevent a larger carbon footprint for the campus.
The Utility maintenance unit will be reduced by three staff. Maintenance support and response times will increase, including extended times for on-call after hours response. Preventive maintenance cycles will be increased, resulting in shorter expected life for equipment and increased potential for failures and unscheduled outages. Deferred maintenance and capital renewal backlog levels will accelerate. The maintenance cycles on thermal distribution systems such as steam and chilled water will increase and plant maintenance activities will be deferred. Elimination of the weekend rounds program will result in increased outages on Monday mornings at the start of the academic week. Reduction in preventive maintenance and deferred capital renovations will result in higher long-term capital costs. Dollars spent per GSF will be approximately 12% below the average of peers based on the national benchmark data used as a result of the PACE initiative. Dollars spent per GSF are currently 17% below the UNC system average.
An increased emphasis on energy management and energy conservation, combined with anticipated reduced costs for energy, enables the university to reduce its utility budget by $1.2 million. Comfort levels in offices and classrooms may be adversely impacted. There are few other methods available to generate significant utilities savings in the short term.
The University’s $4 billion of facilities and infrastructure require a significant annual investment of resource to preserve this investment and extend the life of the current physical plant. The budget for emergency repairs to these facilities and infrastructure will be reduced by $1.1 million, which will further compound the backlog of necessary repairs and leave remaining only sufficient resources for the most critical repairs that prohibit use of a facility or portion of the campus. The combination of the spending freeze in 2008-09, the absence of any repairs and renovation in 2008-09 and 2009-10, and the continued aging of our plant, will make it extremely difficult for the campus to reach with the meeting what might be considered a minimal 2% annual investment in facility repairs and preventive maintenance. The remaining emergency repair budget may well prove inadequate.
L – Academic Support – Reduction of $2,646,500
Overall, the University has eliminated 7 academic advising positions and 15 tutors. The majority were located in the Division of Undergraduate Academic Programs (DUAP), which is combining four advising programs into a single, more comprehensive, and more efficient advising group that will provide multiple services to NC State undergraduates. The College of Management will not fill a vacant advising position, bringing the advising load to 450 students per advisor. The College of Agriculture and Life Sciences is eliminating HealthPAC, a three-person team that has advised 5,000 students interested in entering health professions.
In addition, DUAP is eliminating the Fellowship Advising Office, which has helped students compete for fellowships and graduate school since 2005. In addition, three positions in International Affairs with half-time advising responsibilities will not be filled, leading to reductions in study abroad participation and support for international students, and negatively affecting the University’s efforts to produce students with more global knowledge, cultural understanding, language skills, and international experience. Reductions to academic advising and tutorial assistance are low on the reduction priority list and would be considered important for any reinvestment opportunities.
In the area of class-related support, a significant portion of the University’s savings will come from DELTA (Distance Education and Learning Technology Applications), which has identified ways to reduce costs with minimal impact on students support services. Some staff are voluntarily reducing hours, the unit will no longer pay fees for certain services, and student interns will provide “free” instructional support instead of temporary employees. In addition, DELTA will produce its own DVDs and videotapes for distance education students at a lower cost than outsourcing this task.
In other areas, funds for educational field trips, supplies for teaching labs, and teaching lab technicians will be curtailed, which in turn will reduce the number of lab sections in some colleges. At the College of Veterinary Medicine, reductions will be taken in the unit that manages freight deliveries to the hospital and in the Lab Animal Resources unit, which sets standards and cares for the use of animals in research and teaching. The Biomanufacturing Training and Education Center will drop plans to develop a solid dosage training laboratory that would have supported collaborative pharmaceutical programming with Campbell University and short courses in RTP; companies may choose to locate new facilities elsewhere due to the lack of local training facilities in solid dosage.
Consistent with its strategic plan, NC State has invested heavily in programs to enrich the undergraduate experience at NC State. A number of enrichment programs have been established or expanded in recent years, including the Center for Excellence in Curricular Engagement, Executive-in-Residence, the Entrepreneurship Program, Study Abroad, Global Centers, the Undergraduate Research Program, and the Honors Program. While successful, these new programs serve a relatively small proportion of students and will be scaled back. In conjunction with reductions in academic support programs, the reductions will impact NC State’s success in attracting and retaining outstanding undergraduate students.
P – Professional Development – Reduction of $602,168
One of NC State’s strategic priorities is developing outstanding faculty and staff. However, a variety of in-house professional development opportunities are cutting back on programming. Examples include support for participation in BRIDGES, which provides leadership development for women, and the Office of Faculty Development, which is a resource for faculty seeking to develop their expertise in a variety of areas of responsibility.
Training and ongoing support for the use of instructional technology, such as the Instructional Support Services in DELTA, will be reduced, slowing the ability of faculty and graduate teaching assistants’ to re-orient traditional, face-to-face classes to classes taught online and/or with the use of instructional technologies. DELTA will discontinue a program preparing graduate teaching assistants to help faculty develop online courses and materials, and incorporate this training into existing faculty instructional development programs. DELTA will also implement a more efficient method of staffing distance education classrooms.
Many colleges and administrative units are reducing their professional development funds, which are one of their few sources of flexible funding. Human Resources will defer implementation of a new “one-stop shop” providing new employee orientation and convenient opportunities for vehicle registration, campus ID cards, and access to IT systems and email user set ups.
NC State’s strategic plan also argues that diversity of perspective is necessary for a quality faculty and staff. A variety of diversity programs at the department, college, and university level provide a supportive environment, and networking, social, and learning opportunities that promote understanding and team skills. To accommodate this year’s budget reductions, the University will withdraw from the national Association for Black Culture Centers, which it has sponsored for several years. The successful Study Circles program in the Office of Equal Opportunity will be eliminated. Funding has been reduced for the PURPOSE institute, which provides national networking opportunities for women engineers of color, and from the Council on the Status of Women, which sponsors campus activities. Staff support for compliance reporting has also been reduced to the minimum necessary to complete reporting requirements.
Q – Libraries – Reduction of $1,896,363
As members of the Triangle Research Libraries Network, NC State, UNC-Chapel Hill, Duke, and NCCU enjoy an extraordinarily efficient partnership that has provided students and faculty access to a large collection with minimal duplication for decades. However, this arrangement will not ameliorate the NC State library’s substantial reduction in collections expenditures by $1.5 million. This reduction will require cancellation of 1,000 journal subscription (a 20% decline), loss of online access to an additional 750 journals, cancellation of 17 electronic databases, and the purchase of 15,000 fewer books than last year (a 50% decline). Branch operating hours, service in the Digital Media Lab, and the federal documents depository collection will be significantly reduced. The library will close the Media/Microform service point and henceforth provide access to materials in open stacks, research, or a satellite location. These reductions will affect the students’ access to educational materials, the faculty’s competitiveness in obtaining research grants, and the North Carolina public’s access to scientific and technical information.
R – Seats and Sections – Reduction – $5,224,667
The University has attempted to protect instruction as much as possible, deliberately lowering the reductions assigned to colleges generally and to general education specifically. Budget reductions from all categories (in particular the loss of filled and vacant faculty positions) will reduce NC State course offerings by approximately 300 class sections and 9,750 fewer seats than last year. While these reductions represent a small fraction (3%) of the overall teaching effort, reductions in humanities, social sciences, life sciences, physical sciences, mathematical sciences, and physical education will be necessary, and the loss of seats and sections in these areas will likely lengthen students’ time to degree. All colleges are implementing efficiency strategies, such as increasing class size where large classrooms are available and shifting classes from regular term to summer session. The First Year Inquiry program, which was created in the 1990s to incorporate critical thinking skills and inquiry-guided methods of instruction into general education courses, will be scaled back by about 40 course sections. The College of Management will combine cohorts of RTP and Raleigh students and expand use of a 400-seat auditorium previously restricted to lower division classes. A few colleges are capping or reducing enrollment now — Textiles is capping its new, very popular fashion program, and Education has stated it cannot staff the courses required for two master’s programs leading to licensure. All colleges are reconsidering their long-term enrollment goals, and the impact of eroding course availability will be felt for several years into the future. Reducing seats and sections is NC State’s lowest budget reduction priority, and if funds are retained they will be reinvested to support instruction in general education and undergraduate majors.
S – Campus Safety – Reduction of $630,855
The University has made every effort to minimize reductions that will adversely affect the health and safety of the faculty, students, staff, and visitors to the campus. Therefore, this reduction has been strategically implemented in such a manner that minimizes any adverse affects associated with the health and safety of the campus community. The Assistant Director of Campus Police position has been abolished, which will substantially limit strategic planning and coordination with other criminal justice agencies within the UNC system and Wake County. The Commander of Support Services and the Patrol Division Commander have assumed many of the Assistant Director’s responsibilities; however, limited resources will curtail time dedicated to strategic planning and coordination with other agencies. The Evidence Custodian position in Campus Police has been abolished with evidence management being reassigned to sworn law enforcement officers, thus reducing their time available for patrol. Campus Police will eliminate out-sourced security services, which often includes security guards locking many of the buildings on North Campus; departments will have to lock their own buildings.
The development of new training and course offerings will be cut back as the Safety Trainer position has been abolished. The training responsibilities will be delegated to other Environmental Health & Public Safety staff members. The Industrial Hygiene Manager position has been abolished which will reduce the number of monthly lab inspections and chemical safety overviews conducted. Ultimately, Principal Investigators will be encumbered with these responsibilities. Other critical responsibilities of this position have been shifted to existing Industrial Hygiene staff. Environmental Health and Safety will eliminate the centralized lab signage replacement program. The Threat Assessment program manager will share administrative resources with Campus Police, which will increase time for production of training resources and delay deployment of threat assessment management tracking system.
Funds for Lot 86 (Superfund site) have been reduced since the site is now considered in the Operation and Maintenance Phase transitioning from the Remediation Phase, which involved extensive site clean-up expenses and the design of a groundwater treatment system. Operation and Maintenance costs are primarily limited to monthly maintenance, annual sampling, and annual EPA oversight costs. Managing low-level radioactive waste shipping has become more cost-efficient so despite campus increases in the volume of shipments, the disposal budget is being reduced.
Also eliminated will be the professional manager position for the Campus Background Check Program that processes more than 5,000 background checks per year. The manager position’s responsibilities will be assigned to the current Assistant Director of Employment Services and the one remaining staff processing position. This will mean extended wait times for campus units to receive clearance verifications on hiring actions. Finally, the budget for safety related renovation projects will be reduced by 24% adding considerably to the project backlog and meaning that only the most critical projects will be completed.
X1 Continuation Budget Increases – $4,819,823
NC State University’s 2009-10 Continuation Budget request included cost increases for Personnel Benefits, operating costs for new facilities, utilities, library collections and acquisitions, and motor vehicle/motorized equipment replacement. These are essential cost increases necessary to maintain current levels of operation and, failing receipt of additional state appropriations will require reallocation of available budget resources to cover the most critical of these costs. Funding for these increases was not included in the 2009-11 Appropriation Bill. Following an evaluation by the University, it was determined that certain of these continuation budget cost increases are essential and will have to be covered through a reallocation of university resources.
X2 Realignment of funding resources – $1,914,692
University management will adjust the administrative service charge assessed to institutional trust funds to compensate for the general and administrative services funded from state appropriated funds. This additional funding will replace state appropriated funds reduced from the 2009-10 Continuing Base Budget and ameliorate a portion of the budget reduction for all colleges and divisions. The increase in the Administrative Service Charge is expected to be absorbed by units without increasing charges to campus customers or students.
Other funding realignments will impact rental and program charges to external organizations holding events at the McKimmon Center and charges to external customers using the services of the Center for Urban Affairs and Community Services. Some funding sources for the State Climate Office will be shifted to non-state appropriated funds and direct payment will be required by campus units using the armored car pick-up/delivery service.