While University officials released information on the direction the University is taking to increase efficiency and effectiveness, no specific cuts were announced.

Chancellor Randy Woodson, joined by Provost Warwick Arden and Charles Leffler, vice chancellor for business and finance, stopped by the Technician office Monday afternoon to talk about planned and proposed changes to the University included in today’s release.

Woodson said he feels certain the way the University has been functioning could be improved.

“Our graduation rate is the lowest in our peer group [of Universities], so to suggest that what we have been doing has been working well is not exactly correct,” Woodson said.

Although the University has not received an exact number from the North Carolina Legislature regarding budget cuts to the University system, Woodson charged Arden and Leffler to review the strategic plans and work with the strategic planning task forces to prepare for the unknown cuts.

Woodson said the University has been told cuts could be anywhere from five to 15 percent of the University’s current $1.3 billion yearly budget, but that he has heard of “doomsday scenarios of higher potential cuts to the University system.”

Woodson called the process of reallocating University resources “realignment.” He said he has three goals in mind when considering realignment: protect the academic core to the extent possible; ensure facilities are well maintained; and position N.C. State to continue to be one of the best educational buys in the country.

“We know that we need to realign the way we do our business so that we can face that budget reduction no matter how severe it is,” Arden said.

Instead of asking all University departments to cut their budgets by a certain percentage, Woodson and company have been working to strategically reallocate resources already at the University’s disposal in a way that maximizes efficiency and effectiveness, as well as increases the probability of student success.

Based on things outlined early in the strategic plan, several ideas have been put on the table.

One inefficiency addressed by the Chancellor dealt with the 600 classes on the books that are currently not being taught.

Another aspect of the realignment plan is the merger of the Division of Undergraduate Academic Programs and the Division of Student Affairs. Currently 17 separate programs and departments exist between the two divisions. All 17 departments will be combined and reorganized into four new divisions upon consolidation.

Health, wellness, and student development, campus life, academic services and programs, and N.C. State arts are the four intended programs under the newly combined division which will be “focused on student outcomes,” according to Woodson.

“By consolidating and merging the Division of Student Affairs with DUAP, we will have a very large and robust organization solely focused on the success of every student on this campus,” Woodson said.

The combination will integrate academic and non-academic aspects of the University, which Arden said the University needs to a better job given nationally available resources and results from a University task force.

“[The consolidation] is a direct result of those studies,” Arden said.

Arden went on to say although this particular realignment will save the University money this budget year, as well as over the next couple budget years, the true driving factor for the consolidation was not budgetary savings per se.

“[The main focus was to] do our business more effectively and service our students,” Arden said.

Keith Nichols, director of news and communications, sat in on the announcement.